I teach a children’s Sunday School.
It is not for the faint of heart, and not just because you might get hit with a spitball or handed a “cootie.” (“Could you squish this, teacher? I found it on my sister’s head.”)
Last semester, we worshiped by singing a song called, “Sing Wherever I Go.”
Some of the lyrics say, “God is for me. He’s not against me. I will hold to the plans He has for me. When I’m broken, He will fix me. I will call on the name of the Lord…”
Singing those words to the Lord while looking into the eyes of children who have been orphaned, who have been abused, who are addicted, who are hungry, who have desperate need- has broken me.
But it has also fixed me. Some of these children have faith in the Lord that I can only aspire to. They know their prayers will be answered. They don’t look to God for results. They just want to hold His hand. They hope in the return of Christ because they know that one day, He will make all these sad things untrue.
Before the Israelites ever reached the Promised Land, the Lord exhorted them to listen to His law and obey it. He told them the blessings that would accompany obedience as well as the horrors that would come if they rebelled.
He prophesied their exile to Babylon that would not take place for a thousand years, and then He said, “As for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.”
One of the results of disobedience is fear.
In traveling across our country recently, I noticed that the fear of people is palpable. We are afraid of violence, government, poverty, disease, ultra-processed foods, loneliness, mental health problems, loss, growing old, getting fat, and a myriad of other things.
Yet we live in a nation that is more secure and abundant than any in world history. Our disobedience has led to a plague of fear.
The Lord didn’t give His people a spirit of fear. He calls us to repentance.
The children in my Sunday School suffer violence, poverty, instability, loneliness, loss, and a myriad of other things on the daily, but instead of faintness of heart, they have chosen faith. They have trusted Jesus because they believe that this world is not all there is.
God commands Christians to rejoice because we have something to look forward to that doesn’t change with our circumstances and can’t fade with time. This life is not for the faint of heart, so the Lord gives us the gift of eternal life in Christ.
Don’t be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you, enabling you to sing wherever you go.
Sarah Dixon Young 