Perfect love casts out fear.... (the alligators can be seen and disposed of properly and with authority!)

I heard a story many years ago... well really it was an illustration when I was doing youth work. We were meeting with parents who were nervous about talking to their children about some pretty serious things. (scary talks about things like sex, life after middle school/high school, or more importantly.... things like eternal life and what does that have to do with now?)...

stuff like that provoked this story illustration:

There was a village in a remote part of the Amazon...

A missionary came to the village and was trying to fit into the culture into which he'd been led.

He noticed that in the village there were several young people who'd been maimed or wounded in very life altering ways.

Curious, yet trying to wait until he had permission to ask questions, the missionary simply watched these young ones fit into the traditions and culture into which they'd been born. Their limps and lacks were disregarded by the tribe, or simply accepted as part of their life.

As the missionary ate, interacted and lived with the people he soon was getting to participate in some of the traditions and rituals of the people.... ceremonies surrounding weddings, baby naming, and other celebrations of life were attended by the missionary. Then one day, he was allowed to travel the yearly trek to the river for the

banquet blessing the next year over the tribe's life.

As they approached the river, the missionary saw the children running, laughing and playing with abandon for the moment.....

it was a happy sight for the beginning of what seemed a fun tribal day.

Then, as the parents prepared the food, setting the lovely decorated table,

an unimaginable thing happened

The biggest alligator the missionary had ever seen stole onto the beach where the happy families were preparing and playing..

Alarmed, the missionary began running towards the parents saying....

"get the children, run, get the men... get guns,.... we are in danger, the children,

the children,

the children..... they are in danger!!!"

As he sounded the alarm and warned the parents,

their reactions amazed him...

They were unconcerned!

They told the man.... "there is no alligator, it is only something you are imagining, it can only hurt you if you give in to believing it is there....

just ignore it and it will go away!"

"JUST IGNORE IT AND IT WILL GO AWAY!"

Suddenly the missionary understood the reason for the wounded children......

tradition said......ignore this, it isn't real, and since this is what we always do, don't talk about it, or it will make us change the way it has always been in our tribe."

The missionary left knowing that there would be others wounded or even killed because the alligator in their midst would continue to be ignored until someone from the tribe itself decided to "see" and deal with the truth... thus with permission, putting an end to the alligator.

It is a story that brought some of those parents of my youth group into a place of victory in choosing to talk about, what they considered "scary" or "intrusive" subjects; and then to some it just was one more "story"....

for me, I've never forgotten the images.

This was a more graphic "the emperor's new clothes".......for me..........

it was about the innocence and the purity of a child's vision

("Mom the emperor is naked!")

their trust

my responsibility to that trust........ my responsibility to love!

Unless you become as a little child you can in no way enter the kingdom of God.....

Rob Bell spoke of this in a sermon I once heard........

he was talking about the fearlessness of a child......

particularly when that child is in the safe place of his/her parent's presence.

I've seen my children, my grandchildren run right off the side of a deep pool into the safety of their parent's arms....knowing that the love of their father would keep them from any danger.

maybe kids coined the term "NO FEAR" long before Nike adopted it......

then, I thought of a quote that I repeat....

"what you fear controls you"..... if that is true...

"perfect love casts out all fear"... I know that is true....

can both be true at the same time?

I think only one way......... with one more truth from my Lord,

"God is love".........

If love is what controls me, then I truly have no fear .....

at least of anything on this earth that could harm me.

My Father's arms and heart will allow nothing to steal onto the shores of my circumstances to take my eternal life. I realize that I am talking in both physical and spiritual terms here,

but for me......I am asking daily that the Lord teach my heart what the truest "reality" is,

and in doing that......there is the requisite death,

and the resulting resurrection to truth and life.

simply love and be loved.........not so simple for me at times.