The Next Right Thing A Devotional By Emily P. FreemanSýnishorn

Day 4

Ask This Question

1 John 4:18

It’s possible to live with the dread of a storm even when the sky is clear without a threat of rain. It’s possible to take cover even when there’s nothing to take cover from, except for a heavy idea or a recurring thought in the night. This is especially true when we have a difficult decision to make.

I was once invited to travel as a writer with Compassion International to the Philippines to see the work Compassion was doing on behalf of children. My decision whether to accept was agonizing. I was afraid to fly. I was afraid of getting sick in a foreign country. 

I went around and around this decision. For one day, I pretended to say no in my mind. That didn’t sit well. Then I pretended to say yes, and that didn’t sit well either. There was a tugging, a pulling, an unsettledness either way. After two weeks of praying, discussing, seeking counsel, and general ridiculousness, I finally had a candid conversation with our trip leader, Shaun Groves. He said, “There may be a lot of reasons for you to say no to this trip,” he said. “But please, don’t let fear be one of them.”

That one line exposed the truth for me. I was basing this decision on a storm I was imagining. In an attempt to avoid an unwanted consequence, I was allowing fear to push me around. Once I named the fear, it lost a lot of its power, and so I found the courage I needed to say yes.

Sometimes we’re afraid to move because we want to avoid an unwanted consequence. This is when our lives become marked by hiding from the potential storms of loneliness, failure, isolation, or invisibility. If we don’t take cover, then we might be overcome.

Since that experience I have learned to ask before every difficult decision: Am I being led by love or pushed by fear? We can’t prevent storms from coming, but we can decide not to invent our own.

When you delay the answers, we wait with hope, Lord. We resist the urge to sprint ahead in a hurry or lag behind in fear. Let us keep company with you at a walking pace, moving forward together one step at a time. Help us to know the difference between being pushed by fear and led by love.