Late the other night one of my kids knocked on my bedroom door. Scared and crying, they asked if they could sleep in my room.
“What’s wrong?”
“I had a bad dream and I don’t feel safe in my room. Can I sleep in yours?”
“No. There’s no where for you to sleep and you’re definitely not sleeping in my bed. But you can sleep on the couch, right outside my door. And I’ll leave my door open. If you need something, I’m right here. Ok?”
“Ok.”
“Well, go get your pillow and blanket, and come on down.”
This little person gets all cozy on the couch and I look down and say, “I love you and you can sleep here. But let’s talk about something for a second. Who made you afraid?”
“What?”
“There’s someone in this house who made you afraid, who is it?”
“Me?”
“Yep. It’s you. You made yourself afraid. If someone came in here and tried to hurt you, what would I do?”
“Fight them.”
“Right. There’s nothing for you to be afraid of. So, if you are afraid, you made yourself afraid. But listen now. If you made yourself afraid, what else can you do?”
“Make myself not afraid?”
“Yep. If you made yourself afraid, then you can make yourself strong.”
As I was in bed, I called out into the living room through my open door, “Goodnight!”
“Goodnight Dad. Goodnight Mom.”
So it is. I’m not sure we, even as adults, ever get past moments like this. We cripple ourselves. But hear me. What we often need isn’t a spine of steal and will of iron. That doesn’t hold up. It’s too isolated and individualistic. What we need is an external voice speaking hope. My child didn’t really have the courage I said they did. But, I breathed it into them.
So, it is in the Christian Community. Through the Church the Lord breathes his Word into you and creates something that wasn’t there before.
The point of all this?
Come to Church!
It’s impossible to do life on your own.
No one’s will is strong enough.
You’re gonna get scared and not even know why you’re scared.
And you’re not gonna be able to stop being scared, even though there’s no reason why you are scared!
Life, hope, strength, they must be constantly breathed into you, created anew in you.
Hope to see you soon,
Tom+