An Odd Dance

Good Monday morning! Another winter storm headed our way this evening. The bulk of it is supposed to go further south, but be careful just in case. Hmm, how many just-in-cases have you already pondered this morning? Some of us have a love of anxieties that exceeds even human reasoning. We fret about things that might happen, imagine things that won't happen, and even throw in a few things that might have happened in the past had this or that gone a bit differently. The latter one is the most ridiculous of all, yet we tend to entertain a few visions like that. Praise God that His Holy Spirit is developing a stop sign in my mind.

You might call this stop sign discipline, or self-control, or the control of Jesus in my life. All of these relate to the same thing: the fruit of the Holy Spirit that is growing in my life. When the diabolical self tries to descend into that maelstrom of anxiety, the big stop sign is held up. I believe that I am getting better at holding it up sooner in the process too. Do I give myself a pat on the back for this? No, the glory and credit belongs to God in this. I am powerless on my own to stop these things. Much like a person with a phobia, I need intervention at the perfect time. And who better than the indwelling Holy Spirit to teach me this self-control!

You may have a phobia yourself, or you know someone who has one. I am not talking about fearing spiders more than bees, or height more than depth, but the real full-blown, flee-the-room kind of phobia that is more uncommon. I have come to realize that doing an odd version of the funky chicken dance when a bee or wasp takes a strange interest in me is not all that uncommon. Stopping suddenly or even immediately and taking an involuntary step back when first seeing a snake is probably a good cautionary reaction and not a phobia. Some folks suffer from real phobias. A spider in the room can cause immediate flight or a snake on the ground can cause a panic attack. The fear reaction is much more than it should be; we might even go so far as to call it unreasonable, though there may be a good reason in the person's past. This anxiety thing is much the same, unreasonable and much more than it should be.

On the other hand, I have come to think that shame does not need to be added in to do its insidious work. All of us have grave clothes that need to be given up to the Holy Spirit and laid at the foot of the cross. Jesus has raised us from the spiritually dead and now we need to stand and let the command of our Lord be carried out. You know the one, Jesus said it to those watching Lazarus hobble out of the grave bound in his grave clothes: "Release him and let him go!" Stand and let the Holy Spirit release you from the grave clothes of your past life. Phobias, anxieties, bad habits, dependencies, worries, and much more must be given up in favor of our new life in Christ. And if you see me doing an odd dance outside sometime, just know that some buzzing insect caught me off guard, or maybe its just part of some new fad workout I'm trying.

Have a wonderful and blessed Monday!

Bucky