What Are You Afraid Of?

While the week of love came and went for many, my husband and I continued our celebration a bit later. After a week of hearts, plush stuffed animals, chocolate and fresh flower scents wafting through the stores, my husband surprised me with a romantic movie I hadn't seen before called The Vow.

"You'll like it," he promised. "It's like The Notebook."

"Oh great," I muttered. "This is probably one of those dramatic, tear-sapping movies." While it is dramatic, it is also good and ironically, the actor playing the main character also starred in the movie The Notebook.

If you haven't seen it, the movie tells the story of a couple enamored with one another and, in one moment of impact are both injured in a severe car accident. Paige falls into a coma for a time and, due to the brain injury she suffers, awakens with no memory of her time married to or dating her husband. The rest of the movie shows Leo, her husband, seeking to romantically win her love and her memory back.

At one point in the movie, Paige is back in the doctor's office having her brain injury reviewed. The doctor inquires of her, "Do you want to regain your memory?" While she responds affirmatively, the doctor continues to prod and explain that when memories come back after brain injuries, the negative and dramatic memories also come back. Paige proceeds to state that this doesn't bother her, but instead she's hesitant toward and afraid of what this life and the memories of it may bring. She asks the doctor, "What if I don't like the life that I had? Or what if I like it too much? I . . . I just don't know."

Just like Paige, we find ourselves in moments of uncertainty and hesitancy toward God's plan for our lives. Afraid or uncertain of what it might bring.

I wonder if those that we study asked those questions—if Moses, walking in the desert for years with complaining Israelites, asked that question. If Mary, the mother of Jesus, asked that question of the life she was embarking on—giving birth to the Son of God and the years of hardship ahead.

We may not have the inner conversations of these characters, but we do have record of the angel telling Mary to not be afraid in John 1:30 and telling Joshua to not be afraid in Joshua 10:8.

Psalm 56:3-4 calls us to trust in God in the midst of fear and the unknown.

The Psalmist states his response in these verses:

56:3 When I am afraid, I trust in You.
56:4 In God—I boast in His promise—
in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What are you afraid of? While we may not know the whole story or what our lives may bring, we can continue to walk in faith, trusting in God's promises and His presence in our journey.