Can’t Touch This

When we start on a new path, we often hesitate.  Is it safe? Should I go? What if something bad happens? It’s literally and figuratively true sometimes, this wrestle, when we face new paths and decisions.   But, I want to remind you, if it is a path He has set for you, set you on, you can rest assured: it may or not be “safe”, wild or wonderful, but He Himself is with you.  Why should we be afraid? 

Do we think He would ever send us some place that He is not willing to go too? He will not.  “Where God guides He provides” is an age old statement that never looses its richness, only we, our awareness of its truth.   Also true is it’s cousin statement: Where He leads us, He goes with us.  

“The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear. The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? “

Psalm 27:1 

Brave doesn’t even always look big or bold.   Sometimes, something really brave to one person looks like a cakewalk to another. Brave can even seem boring. But when you wrestle it out where it matters, in your heart, it’s anything but boring.  With beating heart, you know.  Brave isn’t easy.  And brave is as brave does when it’s scared. 

Recently I was running, outside, on a crisp, newly melted path.   I must admit I’m not one for running solo in the woods.  I prefer to run solo, but where people are, or could be in general.  I choose wisely so I won’t go missing or be lost.  It sounds silly even typing it.  But women even brave women need to make wise careful choices for themselves.  It might not be a big deal to some but to those that something like this is, it is.  A great big deal. So I debated this path, and it was deemed to be safe.  Spare some awful uncommon incident, it passed the smell test.  Nothing fishy.  I only had to face some fear.  

I recalled all the truths I cling to, what I know about God.  That He would never send us- never does send us- on any path, literal or figurative, where He Himself is not willing to go too.  He is there, willing  to guide us, to protect us, to BE with us.  All we have to do is ask.  Like a good father, the best Father, He doesn’t send us out to fend for ourselves and hope for the best.  He comes along, with His club in His hand to beat off the wolves, with His provisions should we need anythings, with His light to shine the way.  

So that day I remembered these things.  I felt peace to go, even though it was a wee tiny bit scary and I went.   Everything was fine. Beautiful.  The few men I saw were friendly.  Running one, walking the other.  I could outrun some if needed.  But I didn’t feel I would need to.  I just ran. For the joy of it.  

“Letting go of what is behind I press on toward the mark of the high call of Christ.”

I was running along, delighted, free from fear,  with my phone playing worship music in my pocket. After some time, the song drastically and abruptly changed into (ready for it?)   MC Hammer’s “Can’t touch this.” I burst out laughing.  That may be a song I grew up jamming along to, in nronr colors, 90’s Nike air jordans (like the ones that actually pumped up and filled with air) and even the occasional pair of hammer pants, but that is a song my grown up pandora station has never been asked to play. It was so appropriate though, I could practically hear God laughing.  See.  Protection.  “No evil shall befall you nor any plague come near your dwelling.”Or as MC Hammer said, no one can “touch this.”

God establishes a boundary around us.  We need to remember that,  and enforce it.  To use the truth of God’s word to remind us, remind everything around us that “God is with me.”

“The Lord is my light and my salvation of whom shall I be afraid?”

The verse goes on to say,

“When evil people come to devour me,
    when my enemies and foes attack me,
    they will stumble and fall.
Though a mighty army surrounds me,
    my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
    I will remain confident.

The one thing I ask of the Lord—
    the thing I seek most—
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
    delighting in the Lord’s perfections
    and meditating in his Temple.
For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
    he will hide me in his sanctuary.
    He will place me out of reach on a high rock.
Then I will hold my head high
    above my enemies who surround me.
At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
    singing and praising the Lord with music.”

Psalm 27:2-6

So should I spend time worrying about what may happen, or deciding which way to go, or or should I remind myself where I can put my trust?

Like I said bravery comes in a lot of shapes and sizes.  Sometimes little things that don’t look brave require a lot of bravery when they’re done right. Walking in the door. Saying no. Saying yes. Deciding on something. Sticking to it.

Only you know what wrestle goes on in your heart.  Only you get to decide what you remember the most.  The things  you could be afraid of, or that God goes with you, wherever you go. And He’s there to help you if you let Him.   Remember that part. Because the world is full of opportunity to remember, or forget Him.  It’s better if you do remember. His faithfulness, His Love and kindness. You’re better if you remember.   

The song came on a second time later. Loud and clear.  This time I looked at the screen to see where it came from.  Some playlist I’d never seen or heard, the fourth or fifth song.  Way down the line.  So “random”.  My God, He has the best sense of humor.  

Bravery doesn’t have to be big. Bravery might look small but be quite huge.  Like a tiny powerhouse despite ones size.   It’s not just some kind of magical occurrence either.   That kind of strength, it comes with practice.  It comes by osmosis, by wha”I you take in, what you let in, to your heart and your mind.  Your mind will come up with a hundred and one scenarios to discredit said bravery, it will always wrestle with your heart.   But that is when your heart can flex the muscles you gave it, if you you give it the right chance.  

Fill your mind and heart and thoughts with good things.  With God things, with His thoughts.  With His mind for you. He is for you.  His thoughts, they are good ones, they for you.  He will never leave you nor forsake you. Nothing can separate you from His love. 

 “I would have despaired unless I had believed, that  I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Here in the land of the living.

 Let that thought, that truth, cover you, now, like a blanket.  So when you go out in the world, you know, you’re not alone.  You know the truth, that He’s been there all along. Then you can be brave.  Because you practiced.  Because you learned.  You’re not alone. 

Now go, be brave however your heart is calling you to be today.