The trouble with having a massive brain is that you need a big head to hold it in. Now, I’m not for one minute saying that I have got a massive brain, but I have on a few occasions been called a bighead. No idea why! It is true, though, that I think a lot. Sometimes I think too much. Far too often I think round corners – I certainly don’t always think straight!
That is what happened after the doctor told me he was referring me to check if I had cancer. My mind went crazy! I wasn’t just fearful, I was full of fear. I was still in pain, but fear is worse – the fear of continuing pain, worsening pain, the fear of leaving Libby on her own, the fear of the unknown.
But has anyone ever seen fear? We may have seen it on someone’s face, but we can’t see fear itself. We can feel fear, but we can’t touch it.
Fear can be good for us – the fear of being knocked down by a bus generally stops us jumping in front of buses. But fear can be bad for us too because, if we let it, it can take over our whole life. It can get so bad that it can actually take our life from us.
The simple fact of the matter is that fear is an emotion. For me, that emotion was based on a thought – the thought that I might have terminal cancer. I might have, but I might not – I don’t know and I won’t know until I do know. It’s all just thoughts running through my head.
My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:8-9)
Those verses say so much to me. Most of my thoughts are based on supposition, on emotions, on what-ifs. God’s thoughts are based on truth. They are based on His love for me, for Libby, for you. They are focussed on the plans that He has for us, plans that go beyond today and far ahead of tomorrow.
Away with fear! I’m going to go with God’s thoughts in my mind!