Your Worst Nightmare

What’s your worst nightmare?

As a child I dreamed that I went to school with my pajamas and house slippers still on. That’s a dream born out of fear of exposure I’ve been told.

As an adult I’ve dreamed of driving the car from the back seat while the car careens out of control. Try as I hard as I might I can’t seem to maneuver into the front seat to gain control of the car. That dream has usually popped up when I’ve felt like my life is out of control.

There’s some emergency happening and I must get help. I’m feverishly dialing the phone but the voice on the other end keeps saying, “You’ve dialed the incorrect number, please try again.” It’s an old phone where you dial one digit of the phone number at a time and wait for the dial to return to its place before dialing the next digit of the phone exchange. Somehow I keep making a mistake and have to keep starting over only to reach the wrong number once I finally get through – if I get through. Can you feel my fear and frustration? The eminent danger keeps getting closer and closer as I keep fumbling in my dialing. It’s a nightmare depicting my inability to be heard or get through to someone important in my life.

Then there’s the nightmare that I lived through this past weekend. I’ve been told at the last moment that I’m to speak and I’m trying to jot down notes but I keep being interrupted and can’t concentrate. Panic strikes me and the fear of being unprepared and looking like a fool overwhelms me making concentrating even more difficult. Well, it didn’t happen exactly like that but the nightmare of having to speak in front of a large crowd without being prepared certainly came true.

As some of you know, my husband, the preacher, awoke sick this past Sunday morning. After thirty-seven years of preaching he had never missed a service because of sickness. So when he said he didn’t feel well I didn’t give it much thought. But when I heard him hurling I got worried. I had an early worship practice because I was leading worship. As I left he pulled me into his office and showed me his notes. He actually expected me to preach for him from his notes. Yikes, could this really be true? There were nineteen pictures of slides and a statement for each but no other notes. I took his notes with me but fully expecting that he would show up at the last moment. Placing them on the pulpit I went to practice not to see them again until time to preach. No, he didn’t save the day. My worst nightmare had come true but it wasn’t quite like I expected. God came through and ministered through me as only He can do.

What did I learn? We can face our fears and trust God to be faithful to get us through whatever comes our way. What we fear is never as bad as we expect. Yes, I’ve taught, spoke and preached for many years but I take the responsibility seriously and like to be totally prepared. But, if some circumstance arises where I am needed I can trust God to help and empower me. He is faithful.

I don’t know what fear you are facing but God will be with you helping you to face it with His power. He is with you. He has your back. His hand is upon you and you can make it while leaning on Him. He can turn your worst nightmare into an unbelievable blessing. Sweet dreams….