INTIMIDATION

It's not always easy being "on top of the world" as that old song cheerily speaks of...In fact, I've been having quite a few "feeling pretty darn low" days of late. I was thinking about how paralyzing a feeling--   "being fearful of the future"-- can be...And then I happened to catch something on TV that helped me understand what was going on...

My son had the TV tuned to "The Military Channel" and the show was about tactics of war. What caught my attention, was an officer stating (in so many words) that the singular,  most important thing an enemy can do, is to convince the opposition that winning the war is impossible... so he's not even going to engage...to essentially GIVE UP before even engaging in battle...by thoroughly intimidating and putting fear into his mind..."

I thought back about when I was newly bereaved. What frightened me the most about the future, was wondering if I could SURVIVE the horrors of the (who knows how long?) war that I'd just entered into...A war that threatened to destroy even my "will to live" ... putting FEAR into me by wondering if I could battle such strong feelings of sorrow, pain and angst of the like I'd previously never experienced...or even imagined were possible..

"YOU CAN'T DO IT"--that's the siren song of the enemy. Just like the officer had said on the TV show...the enemy trying to get me, to get us, to give up before even engaging in battle. 

The thing is, though, that we don't fight this battle alone! Even though the enemy tries very hard to isolate us, and to make us feel utterly alone, we really aren't! God is right there with us, usually unseen...but very much a very real part of our lives every second and every step of our waking lives.

One of the things that kept me feeling weak and defenseless, was the enemy's insistence that my children were, in fact, completely "dead." Not only dead, but cheated out of the rich lushness of life's blessings...And telling me that "I" was also duly cheated. As the years rolled on, I can see how that initial kick-start punch into tempting me to despair, by twisting the truth, could have had horrible repercussions... if I'd given in to the "Might as well give up... they're DEAD" thinking...He was capitalizing on what was the biggest horror...the reality that their physical bodies no longer walked this planet...If I focused only on that...I wouldn't be able to figure out that only their shells were dead...their inner core of beauty and vitality-- was in reality-- more alive than ever!

Jesus was fond of saying someone was "asleep" rather than their being flat-out "dead." Asleep has the promise of reawakening...Not so much... does the word "dead." Our souls are still very much alive when our physical bodies are deceased. We never "really" die...just the old clothing has been shed...we're awaiting being clothed in robes anew of a beauty that we cannot even imagine now.

My late husband communicated to me (when I nearly stumbled, carrying heavy boxes of his clothing down into the basement--unable to give them away just yet)...

"I feel so free! So light!"

This wasn't so much audible as it was an "interior declaration" of sorts...but clear as a bell it was!

We should try hard not to succumb to the biggest tactic enemies have to take down those they hate...
so much fear and assurance of "losing"... that they give up  before they even start! Faith in the One Who CAN truly fight and win battles (and has already defeated the enemy!) is KEY to surviving the war...

And we don't even have to know how to fight...we just have to be willing to TRUST that God is able to do what He has said that He can...and will do for us...SAVE US!...