A long time ago in pre-history before television, we listened to the radio, and there was one program that always came on the air at 9:00 p.m Friday night called “THE SHADOW.” This was a mystery that always started out with the spooky sound of a door slowly opening on squeaky hinges, and then you would hear this real low voice intoning: “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The shadow knows!”
When I was just a little boy-kid I was afraid of almost everything. I was afraid of the roar, rustle, and rattle of the train rushing through the night. I was afraid of the dark. I was afraid of what I could only imagine might be hiding in the darkness of my closet. And I was especially afraid of what surely was lurking under my bed!
Yes, I was afraid.
Eventually I learned that the sound of the train was just that and no more; a sound that came shrieking out of the darkness and just as swiftly was gone again. And I learned that the night was not to be feared and nothing was hiding in my closet.
Yes, there came a time when I was able to face my fears.
I have fought forest fires, facing that which threatened to consume me. And I will never forget the first time I entered a lion’s cage, and walked away unharmed.
Fear is strange in the sense that we control it, or it controls us.
Yeah. That's what it boils down to, isn’t it? Control!
What I have learned in my somewhat eventful life is that fear is usually based on half- truths or blatant lies.
One long ago day I decided to write about the thing that was supposedly hiding under my bed, and this is what I wrote:
There was a slippery slimy, gooey grimy, flopping slopping, creeping peeping, teeny weeny, ittie bittie, smiggledie piggledie, curly haired, long horned, cross eyed, knock kneed, floppy footed, something, that lived under my bed.
(As a man I had to ask myself, what am I afraid of?!)
The slippery slimy, gooey grimy, flopping slopping, creeping peeping, teeny weeny, ittie bittie, smiggledee piggledee, curly haired, long horned, cross eyed, knock kneed, floppie footed, something that lived under my bed was really very clever. And the reason I know it was very clever was because every time I looked under my bed, the slippery slimy, gooey grimy, flopping slopping, creeping peeping, teeny weeny, ittie bittie, smiggledee piggledee, curly haired, long horned, cross eyed, knock kneed, floppy footed something that lived under my bed ran and hid, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find it. And do you want to know why? Because it was really much more afraid of me than I was of it!
But then I learned that the things to really be feared were the quirks and the selfishness of my own character - my constant anger, or my tendency to demand my own way, or, well, you know, my humanity!
Dear Papa God, help us - all of your children - to remember that we need never fear because you are always with us. We need not fear the demons that rage for men’s souls, nor the deep water. We need not fear the dark of night, nor the storms that threaten us, nor the cold of winter, nor the threats of evil men, nor the fires of hell - none of it - because you are our keeper and our protector. Oh what a wonderful friend you are! In Jesus’ sweet and magnificent name we ask it, Amen
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