Gracie Girl Blog

I’ve been thinking about fear the last couple weeks. Partially because there’s been some upset of the peace in Blacksburg with a shooting and murder happening downtown a few weeks ago. In general, its been a tough last month for Virginia colleges.

Around a year ago the Blacksburg Burglar targeted girl’s houses and we lived afraid for a good two weeks. At peak-fear, my roommates and I slept in the same room with the lights and police scanner on. On a Friday night a couple weeks ago, Virginia Tech was sending out alerts about an individual with a gun downtown, less than a mile from where most VT students live, and telling everyone to stay in place and lock the doors. Far from your ideal Friday night, I was away in Roanoke with most other Young Life leaders, and pretty much everyone was up until 2:00am texting friends and roommates.

It became clear later that the shooter was not targeting Virginia Tech, but at the time of the alerts no one knew that. And of course, it is at the forefront of our minds that our school is the most notable example of a college shooting. We walk by the memorial daily and sometimes on a random Thursday walking to class I’ll be reminded that on a day in 2007, on my campus, 32 students like me did not live to see the sunset on what should have been a normal day.

It takes events like this to remind us how fragile and quick life really is. It takes watching Russia invading Ukraine to remind us that though we have made progress, the human condition remains.

It’s okay to feel fear – don’t lie to yourself about your feelings. BUT don’t stay there. The Lord did not give us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). If you are in a room with someone and they have a gun, you are still the most powerful person in the room because Jesus is there with you. Death is everywhere and we walk amidst a dying people bowing and praying to idols that cannot save. It’s easy to forget. This is what I have been thinking about lately.

I struggle sometimes with the idea of suffering because the American version of Christian suffering is very very different than what Christians are experiencing in Afghanistan, China, or Ukraine. We do not experience the persecution or torment of war or an oppressive government. Still, we experience pain and sometimes I think our comfortability isn’t the blessing we think it is.

The devil works in subtleties here. In our “small” beliefs that are almost right. In manifestation which is almost prayer, in a strong belief in “your truth” which is almost truth, in crystals that almost heal.

These beliefs fall apart in the face of real trials, but more importantly when held up against the Bible.

I’m reading through Isaiah for the second time right now. There’s something about the justice and mercy wrapped together that I love. There is wrath, war, and rebellion yet there are streams in the desert land, wastelands restored, and a remnant that remains. The Lord is faithful to His people though they are unfaithful to Him.

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel.

Isaiah 14:1

Isaiah 61 marked my 2020 and the book as continued to influence my life daily. I hear verses from it in a lot of the worship I listen to which has me thinking Isaiah is specifically near to this time. We are looking for both justice and mercy, for streams in the desert and fruitful fields and places to hide from the storm. It’s comforting to know we are not in “unprecedented times” in the context of the Lord’s people. Our condition is very much precedented.

In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them,

but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel,

in truth.

Isaiah 10:20

So, back to the “new age” beliefs: manifestation, believing whatever feels right, crystals. These work fine in middle-class America where “having your life together” is supposedly just one green smoothie and a “that girl” routine away. But put these beliefs in, I don’t know, Ukraine for example – and the ideology falls apart immediately. A core belief of manifestation is “what you want/desire will come to you” and that you can think good things into existence. There are a lot of people sheltering from bombs in subway stations right now who I am sure did not manifest that. Maybe war is Putin’s truth, and as our culture loves to preach, who are we to judge? Maybe we can send some crystals over for good vibes? Suddenly this is getting really close to sounding like Isaiah’s rebuke and mocking of idols which, in all of history, have saved no one.

And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,

and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,

and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

And the idols shall utterly pass away.

Isaiah 2:17-18

The beliefs I mentioned above are really just an example of the wider, postmodernist culture we live in. I think it does us some good to think about how our beliefs would stand if we didn’t live so comfortably. I am so thankful to be in America and live the life I do, but I also don’t want to slip into half-truths that wash away like sand when the waves come crashing in.

I’ll sum my thoughts up like this:

We feel fear, but we are not called to live there. We should get all our truth from the Word of our Father, because it is the only truth that endures. And though you may be in a wasteland, desert, or war right now, there is peace and rescue coming.

until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,

and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,

and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.

And the effect of righteousness will be peace,

and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

Isaiah 32:15-18