Fear Is A Beast

Fear is a beast, ya know…I’ve done a pretty good job internalizing it so far.  Don’t get me wrong I’m underneath the beauty of grace and anointing to do something that is beyond my knowledge or experience base, however I am fully human.  And fear is a mongrel.My Coach man feels the same way.  We are both reaching towards something that is incredibly unknown in order to touch, feel , hear, experience the Person we know to be more real than we are.Jesus.We are delayed at the Tampa, FL airport talking, confessing, expressing and embracing the power of God to do something that is nuts.  Today we are in Florida.  Tomorrow, Lord willing, we will be in Haiti.Haiti.As we wait for our flight we are remembering the tenderness of a precious morning with our kids yesterday.  They have done a masterful job of masking the unknowness of the unknown too…Yesterday the dam broke.  After a bizarre morning of just random things I decided to ask my daughter “the question”.  I decided instead of disciplining her all morning for acting “weird” and faking knowing what it was really about I decided to eat the elephant in the room.  I piled up on my bed where she had snuggled in and I just asked……“Baby girl, are you nervous?  Are you scared?”I didn’t say of what.  I didn’t have to.Tears fell.  “Momma, I’m nervous to let you and Daddy go to Haiti.  I don’t know what that will be like?  I think I want you here.”At the same moment, without knowing it, Toby simply asked Cade for a hug in the living room between inhaling donuts and watching ESPN…….huge gator tears.“Daddy, I’m gonna miss you.  I’m gonna miss momma.”Deep breath in.  Deep, deep breath in.  Slow, Jesus trusting, breath out.That’s when Toby and I joined forces and we all just bawled like babies.  Seriously.  We didn’t tell the kids to wipe those tears and stop that nonsense!  We have nothing to fear!  We let them express fear, they let us express fear.  Identifying weakness isn’t a bad thing, as long as it leads you to a greater Strength.  And that is exactly what it did.We talked, cried, remembered how we are called to love the way Jesus loves and sometimes it is a “Going” kind of love.  Haiti and our sponsored child Jamesley is a “Going” kind of Love.  After all our tears where teared we turned the corner though.  Identifying fears and weaknesses is what we should do in order to fully embrace the incredible nature of God choosing “crazy” by using us in any capacity…..however; we cannot give in to fear.  It cannot allow it too much space or it starts to define and manipulate us.  It must be expressed honestly/vulnerably and captivated.  Then fear must be forced into the obedience of Christ.  {2 Corinthians 10:5} Forced.  That indicates we must MAKE it obey the greater Power, not the weaker vessel. We are the weaker vessel.  God is the greater power.Our kids helped us realize this Truth yesterday.  After we had ventured far enough on the branch of sharing our reservations, peace came.  God is good like that to wash His unending unexplainable peace over a situation, especially when it involves your kids.  Because the truth is that our kids along with Coach Man and I realize this trip to Haiti is more about a life style than a single experience.  Handing your treasures over to God is hard.  Our most valuable offering to the Lord is NEVER going to be easy.  If it is easy I would ask if it is truly a treasure?Our kids are a treasure.  To Cade, Ainsley and Shelby Kate mommy and daddy are a treasure.  We all realized in order to go forward with Jesus; we will have a life style of laying treasures at His feet.  And that is stinking tough.If you will allow them to - your kids are ready to pick up deeper spiritual truths than you probably realize.  I will keep this post on point but I will say a HUGE passion for me is taking literally “Train up a child in the way he/she should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.” They won’t know to crave another life style because they will be so satisfied with the adventure and satisfaction of following Jesus…..everywhere.  Toby and I want them to hunger for the things of God; it’s our job to show them that WE hunger for the things of God.  It is also our job to show them that we are REAL follows of God.  We embrace their questions because we have just as many or more questions.  However we also know how to lead them to the Source to have their questions answered.  We also know that God’s perfect love drives out fear.Drives.  It.  Out.Now, that is some terminology we are familiar with.  We are a coaching family.  We know what it means to put a foot in the ground and explode out of your stance to drive the opposition back.So that is exactly what we did.   We dried our tears.  We tickled till we nearly cried from laughing so hard and then we grabbed some couch pillows and we ALL drove back fear.  Literally.  Right there in the living room we put a foot in the ground, shouted “I’m driving out fear with Love!!!”, then drove hard toward that pillow and drove daddy back in the chair.It was awesome.  I’ll never forget that God moment of teaching us ALL what it looks like to drive out fear.  I doubt my kids will ever forget it either.  Glory wave.As we wait to board another flight that takes us one wheel touch closer to Haiti I’m remembering to drive out fear.  My kids are doing it right now as they hold down the fort at home learning all about Haiti with their Mimi. {They are basically having VBS Haiti home style}.  We are all gonna get a little braver this week.  And Lord willing we will all get closer to the heart of Jesus’ perfect love that casts out every fear.“Perfect Love casts out fear” 1 John 4:18“God never wastes our faith.  He never has, and He never will.  It is against His character.  He’s a reliable manager of anything that is entrusted to Him.  Including our very lives.  How could we not trust Him?  Honestly, hasn’t he already given us more than we already deserve?” Steven Furtick, Greater Book