Fearful Forebodings
|
One crisp fall morning, while I was busy with a project at home, my former roommate called me. She sounded desperate. She briefly told me that something grave had happened to her family and asked if she could swing by. Shortly after, she came up the stairs to my apartment, completely distraught. She told me her grandmother, back in her home country, had not been well, and her dad had also experienced some health struggles lately.
The previous evening, she noticed a family member had posted on WhatsApp. She knew this probably meant something terrible had happened.
She could not bring herself to read the message thread, knowing she would not be able to handle the bad news. A fearful foreboding kept her up almost all night long. She was gripped by a terrible fear that something awful had happened to her family.
I sat down with her, put my arm around her shoulders, and said a prayer.
When she finally felt able to check her messages, she found out the messages did not bear any bad news at all. It was just some general conversation within the family group. Let us rewind to 1989. I had been hospitalized because of an osteotomy on my right leg.
This leg was almost an inch longer than the other one, and in order to avoid long-term orthopedic problems, I opted for surgery.
As a teenager, I naïvely assumed I would wake up after the procedure and everything would be fine. Little did I know how much pain would be involved in the healing process. It was a terrible ordeal, and painkillers alleviated the excruciating pain only temporarily. However, if I had known about the outcome beforehand, would it have changed anything? No.
I would probably have been as anxious about it as my roommate had been when she arrived at my home that fall morning. And in her case, all the fear and anxiety were needless! What this has taught me is that it makes no sense to be fearful of anything we might face in the future. Our feelings will not change the outcome.
Only our great God alone has everything under control.
He will see us through every trial.
So fear not, my friends, for the Lord is with us.
He will strengthen and help us!
Daniela Weichhold
