Life can seem complicated.
You start your way down a path and along the way come complications. Fear overwhelms you, making you second guess your every move. By the time it overwhelms you, it’s too late to turn around, but the end seems so far away.
I had the pleasure of helping out at camp for teenagers 13-16 years old. We stayed across the river from the jungle. Everyday there were monkeys jumping from tree to tree. They even came to the campground at night and stole all our bananas. During our time at camp, there were a few planned activities including a midnight walk.
We all met at midnight on the first night and got the students into groups. The people that run the camp gave them a few rules. The first rule was that they could not use names and would have to call each other by the numbers they were given. The second rule was that the students weren’t allowed to say anything that they wouldn’t want to see happen. For example if they didn’t want to come in contact with a tiger don’t say the word tiger. While the students were given rules, the leaders were pulled aside. We were told that the students would be doing a solo walk later on during the night. During the night walk, the leaders and staff would be hidden along the path to scare the students. Not exactly sure what we were getting ourselves into, we went back to the students and started our group walk. After 30 minutes of walking, we stopped and the leaders were handed blindfolds, one for each student in their group. Panic arose in the students. It was already late and dark. They had no idea what was happening. Once we blindfolded the students, one group at a time walked another 10 minutes until we were all together again. The students were told to sit and wait. One at a time, the staff called them up by number. They would walk them far enough away from the group so they couldn’t hear what was going on and then took their blindfold off. Once the blindfold was off, the students were staring at a dark, unfamiliar path. They were told that they were to walk the path until they reached brother Jacob waiting for them down the trail. They had no idea where they were, how far they had to walk, or what the path might bring. I was able to watch a few of them leave. The fear that stirred up within them was so thick you could feel it. After watching a few students disappear into the dark, the staff member at the starting line looked at me and said, “you go.”
I stared at the dark path and felt what the students were feeling. Even though I knew what was coming, it was still scary. I made it almost all the way to the end with no problem when a staff member met me on the path. He told me to hide on the side of the road and scare the students as they walk by.
So there I sat for a solid 2 hours. Making noises, following, and jumping out at students. Some were unfazed while others were sobbing as they ran by. During this time sitting there by myself, I started talking to the Lord. I asked him to show me what he wanted to show me. The Lord tends to show me things in parables or in different situations. He started to show me that this activity is a lot like our walk with him. We start on this path he called us to, knowing he will be at the end as promise. But along the way come attacks- things that are meant to take our eyes off of him and the path, things to instill fear. Let’s be honest, these things suck and make walking the path he has called us to a little bit harder, but he showed me something through that. He showed me that no matter how hard it seems, we will get to what he has promised as long as we keep pushing forward. It will always be there at the end no matter what the journey looks like. In those times of fear, we need to turn to him and speak the authority we have as believers over all of the attacks.
When we look at fear through the lens of authority that the Lord has given us, there isn’t any path too dark to travel.
