When You Must Choose Between Two Doors...

What do you do when the weight of this sin-stained world is threatening to suffocate you? When the pains of life meet you right on your doorstep? When you're stabbed with the reality of just how little control you hold over life. When things happen that are terrible and do not seem fair and remind you of just how frail life is...



That is when the mind becomes tempted to sink into despair. To sink into that dark slippery pit known as fear. That is when the heart has the potential to lose faith. To lose trust. To pose question after cynical question.

Because, honestly, a good look around this world can easily cause the heart to shudder.

But there are two doors. The black one is heavy and grimy and its nameplate says "Fear". The other door, gleaming white, bears the nameplate with the word "Trust" stamped on it.

And there are times when I must consciously tell my hand to reach past that black door to the doorknob of trust. Because truth lies behind that door; the other door is only a passageway to lies, darkness, and tormenting fear.

I must choose truth. So I must choose to pass over the threshold of Faith. He does, after all, tell me to trust Him always, give thanks always. He does tell me that He knows the plans He has for me (for my husband, for my children, for my family) and those plans are not to harm me but to give me hope and a future. And He tells me to think upon those things which are pure, honest, noble, true (not fear-filled, anxiety-producing.) And I know that He holds my life in His hand. And though storms will certainly still come, I will always be sheltered there in the cleft of the Rock as the storms rage around me.

And so I trust. As hard as that first step through the door of "Trust" can be, as hard as it may be to fight the enemies of the mind who want me to linger in the dark room of fear, that first step must be taken. And then I must set my face as flint, and rest in my Heavenly Father's arms, and resolve to know and believe that He works all things for good for those who love the Lord...

And a prayer request, dear friends...

For my cousin whose 19 year-old son died very unexpectedly yesterday morning while finishing up his basic training. The family was getting ready to travel to Illinois this weekend for his graduation, and now a mother and father, grandparents, family, fiancee, and friends deeply grieve over the loss of this young man's dear life. Details concerning his death and its causes are not fully known yet, but as I held his mom in my arms this morning as she wept, all of the world crashed down on the reality of that moment. And she needs prayers badly.