My eyes snapped open and I shot out of what was a perfect Sunday nap when I heard the dog barking below me at the garage door.
Images from When a Stranger Calls immidiatly began playing in my mind.... Well, okay so I just saw the previews but that was enough that I get what happens to the innocent girl in a strange house alone.
Then I could hear the little phrase play in my head on repeat.
"It's so simple, you can choose not to be afraid, Mary"
"You can choose not to be afraid."
I dove under the sheets for my missing sock,put it on and padded down the carpeted stairs.
"Maybe it's a cat, maybe it's a squirrel" I thought as I told my heart to stop racing and started to take normal breaths in and out.
What if we lived choosing to make our emotions submissive to the Word?
The first lie the deceiver told was to Eve; "Did God really say?" translation "Eve, God's holding out on you!" Did Eve hold onto the word, rock solid and generous or did she give into the feelings that God was holding out on her?
What if I practically live this out?
Yes I feel.... but Psalm 103 is true
"Bless the Lord oh MY soul and all that is in ME
He forgives my iniquities (all of them)
He heals my dieses
He redeems my life from the pit ( I don't live in the pit any more)
He crowns me with steadfast love and mercy
He satisfies me with good so my youth is renewed like the eagle
He works justice and righteousness for ALL who are oppressed
He makes know his way s
He reveals his acts
He doesn't always remain angry or chide
His steadfast love (his love with no exit strategy) is towards me!
So I repeat 1 John 1:9 "Fear not little flock" WHY!? "Because it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Because of Him Joshua 1:9 is more than a suggestion "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed," HOW?! " (remember) for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
I boldly speak Romans 8 out loud to the one who knows how deep my condemnation went "There is NOW therefore NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus..."
How?! "For God has done what the law, weekend by the flesh, COULD NOT DO. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, HE condemned sin in the flesh (His flesh) in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.." Romans 8:1-4
and feel no shame, why? Because Romans 4:7-8 is true "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, (insert happy dance) and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord WILL NOT count his sin."
2 Corinthians 5:21 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that IN HIM we might become the righteousness of God."
and when I feel nothing? I remember Exodus 6 "Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. I am the Lord and I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you I will take you to be my people and I will be your God, and you shall know that it am the Lord your God who has brought you out."
When I feel oppression reigns Psalm 103 repeats "He does work Justice and Righteousness for all who are oppressed"
And when I feel that he has forgotten Isaiah 49:15-17 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have ENGRAVED you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.Your builders make haste;your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you."
When I am sure this place between a rock and a wall is useless Job speak a different perspective; "But he KNOWS the way that I take; when he has tested me, I WILL come forth as gold."
I reached the garage door with the maniac dog on the other side waiting for me to let him in.....
The garage was definitely closed when I had come in that afternoon.
"Choose not to be afraid, Mary. You don't have to choose fear."
There's an explanation for this I'm sure, and it doesn't have to include masked terrors waiting on the other side to barge into the house.
I turned the dead bolt and Shasta stopped barking, then I heard the deep male voice coming from the other side of the unlocked door.
Quicker than you would think possible I locked the deadbolt and shot up the stairs.
"Who breaks into someone garage in the middle of the afternoon! Someone who doesn't care about consequences that's who."
I looked around the room for some where to hide, the bed was up too high, there wasn't a closet and I'm definitely old enough to understand that hiding under the covers would do nothing for me.
I grabbed my phone and sent an SOS text to the nearest person.
"There's a man in the garage!"
I stood in the middle of the room exposed waiting for who ever it was to come up the stairs and find me just standing there.
Then I heard a scream, I dropped to the floor breathless.
Then I head another scream... more like a squeal. I crawled over to the window and looked down at the back yard and saw one toe headed little boy chasing an older boy while they both tried to carry arm loads of wood out the gate.
Micah and Nathan Stanley shot out of the yard with their arms full of scrap wood from the deck project that was being constructed in the back yard.
My heart immediately stopped racing and I stood up laughing to myself.
I calmly walked down the stairs and opened the door like nothing had happened to meet the littlest Stanley and let the dog inside before he had a heart attack.
I poked my head around the corner to see Jonathan directing three tiny boys with arm loads of wood to a trailer.
He waved and walked over
"I figured you'd come out when Shasta started barking."
We both laughed and in my head I thought
"Yeah... I've seen the movies that's how people die."
