Brace yourself to be schooled by a 5 year old!
“You have to get mad at fear, really mad. I have started telling my daughter that, and the other day I heard her in her room saying “get lost”. I rushed to her room and asked who she was speaking to and she said, “fear is trying to make me afraid but I told it to get lost, because I am a conqueror in Christ!” – Oby Bamidele
Haha! Love that! Do you love that? I love it! A brazen 5 year old! A mind being transformed by TRUTH!
Picture me, some years back, racing along the N1 highway, from Pretoria to Johannesburg. My knuckles clenched around the leather steering wheel, my seat rammed so far forward, that the wheel pushed painfully into my tummy. Eyes, brimming with blind hot tears, I sped away from yet another doctor’s appointment. Another recoiling invasion. Another dreaded wait. What will it be this time? My heart tastes like blood in my mouth! Tell me, how much can one soul take? Will I survive another climactic fail? Isn’t there a cap on pain? Like a maximum threshold, after which one just sputters out and flatlines? Or will I take hit after hit forever and a day?
Then I clicked “play”, and sat, still, at the feet of My Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, waiting to hear what He would say. Out poured rhythms and lyrics, cascading over my soul, a balm for my aching heart! “Hello Fear” by Kirk Franklin. Only, this was not a docile, resigned, “Hello Fear,” that echoed subservience and defeat. No. This was a “Hello Fear,” that etched a line in the sand, rose and stood tall, arms akimbo, and calmly declared, “Hello Fear. I knew I would see you. You have a hard time letting go. See these tears? Take a good look, ’cause soon they won’t fall anymore. God’s healing my hurtful places. That seat that was yours, now is taken. I’m no longer afraid. See, I’m better this way. And one more thing before you leave, never again will I love you. Never again will I trust you. My heart, it refuses to be your home. No longer a prisoner, today I remember, apart from you is where I belong.” (lyrics to “Hello Fear”)
Or in 5 year old Dara Bamidele’s words, “Get lost!”
Whoop! And so for that day, and that particular imminent descent into a deep gulf, Fear got read the riot act and it had no choice but to back up and LEAVE ME ALONE!! And I rose to tell the tale. I still got afraid many times after that. Gosh, I feel Fear even now, as I write this, possibly every time I wrap my mind around what The Narrow Gateway is going to be about and what I am now about. Fear is one of the devil’s most powerful arsenals against you and I! It immobilises. It spins tales of woe and destruction, with you being the main feature in the mayhem. BUT there is TRUTH. GRACE. Jesus Christ offers you and I GRACE that unravels the most thickly spun quagmires. Grace is power that ENABLES you and I to do the impossible. To be the impossible. Not because we are the power. By ourselves, we will not do the impossible. But when we anchor into that place, behind the veil, where the One who IS POWER resides! WHOOHOO! My oh my!
So I say, “Sorry Fear, Grace took your place!” Because if I do not say that, and if I do not walk in that, then I will remain transfixed in paralysis. And the works God prepared for me to work before time began, will linger around, unworked. And now that I have a glimpse of the God-life awaiting me, I’m sorry, I’m just not having that! Put your hands up if you feel me! And if you don’t, feel God’s unflinching arms tightly embrace you anyway. Because GRACE means, He will not give up on you!
So guys, if you happen on yours truly a.k.a this quirky girl called Toyin, strutting around muttering, “Get lost. GET LOST!” Just nod at me and be like, “Hey yo!” Or more like, “Yes ke! You tell it!” We’ve gotta do this. Fear just has to give up its seat, to Grace.
‘Optional extra’. Be careful what you leave in your sound system, waiting for you to click play. Be careful what you invite into your spaces, when the days are crisp and sunny. Because when life brings on those dark and fearsome tunes, that erupt into chaotic crescendoes in your life, which it will, you will respond in the dance you were taught by the things that take up your spaces.
Check out Hello Fear by Kirk Franklin
I am Toyin, quirky writer of this piece, fully convicted by my own words, and very much under God’s construction. Enter with me through the narrow gateway.
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I’d love to hear from you!
Get in touch! Tell me your story about fear and grace – it doesn’t matter where you are at in the journey. What are you afraid of? What’s the worst that could happen? How do you respond to fear? Are you ready to jump?! Let’s see where this takes us.
Place your comments below, or send me a private message on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. Like my page on Facebook (@coachtoyin), follow me on Twitter (@thenarrowgate4) and on Instagram (@coach_toyin). Engage, share and re-share. Let’s get the WITNG message out there!
I look forward to getting to know you better. Keep truth-seeking.
Toyin