Who Will Come In -- E-day minus two

You may recall that we left our young lady having to choose between her desire for the Presidency and her fear of public criticism. Unfortunately, most people take the low road of fear. It seems a safe choice, but the tragedy is that it isn’t safe at all.

Suppose our young lady, consciously or unconsciously, abandons her dream of public service because she doesn’t think she could stand to be criticized publicly. As an unknown, it is true that she will probably never be butchered by the press—but that doesn’t mean she won’t be roasted by her "friends" as the main course for Sunday dinner! By allowing her fears to rule her, she is only guaranteeing that she will never attain the height of her dreams; she can have no assurance whatsoever that she will not still experience her fears.

King Saul was a great example of this concept. At a crucial point early in his reign, he faced a difficult decision. On the one hand he had his desire to please the Lord; on the other, he feared losing the favor of the people. His fear ruled his choice. Saul did not please the Lord, but, sadly, he lost the people, anyway. Only a few short years later, the people he had feared losing were singing the praises of the young man that God chose because Saul hadn’t chosen to please the Lord.

Our choice of desiring good and fearing evil seems to hinge on something that exists at our very core. If you recall, the passage in Proverbs stated that the desire of the righteous would be granted. I believe that the only thing that enables an individual to truly desire good is a crystal-clear revelation of righteousness in and through Christ. Outside of this core-level righteousness, humans are perpetually ruled by their insecurities, which, in turn, are bound up in fears of evil.

Today I received a request for removal from my mailing list. That won’t send me into a forty-day depression, but neither does it feel good. The immediate temptation is to wonder if I’ve written something I shouldn’t have, and from there it isn’t a long trip to reach wondering if there is any point in continuing to write. Then comes reality: even if I had a thousand people on my mailing list, it still wouldn’t feel good to know that someone wanted to be removed. Am I going to quit now, fearing that some folk won’t want to read what I write? Or will I keep on, knowing that some folk won’t, but that many will? If I quit, I am assuring only that I won’t "succeed;" I am not insuring against failure.

My choice will be determined not by what I want the most, but by how I feel about myself; how I feel that God feels about me. In the end, you see, it comes down to how we believe God sees us.

What we believe determines what we let in.

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