The Power of Perfect Love

I look forward to the daily devotionals that arrive in my e-mail each morning. They're like breakfast for the spirit, providing me with the nourishment I need to get ready for the day. I found today's devotional particularly appropriate and helpful: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear… (1 John 4:18)

Did you know that babies are born with only two fears? They have a fear of falling and a fear of loud noises. Yet by the time most of us reach adulthood, we've developed more than 7,000 different fears: fear of disease, fear of death, fear of rejection, fear of heights, fear of flying, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of snakes, fear of people. The list goes on and on. Some rational (at least that's what I tell myself) and some irrational, like my fear of mice. The mere sight of one (dead or alive) will cause me to become completely unhinged, despite the fact that I must be what?…. about 100 times its size.

Mickey and his cohorts aside, I've wrestled with many fears over the past couple of years. I faced what seemed like my biggest last spring when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Initially, it was only the surgery I feared, and not so much the surgery itself as the being put to sleep part. Having prayerfully overcome that (I'll share in another post about the nun God sent to minister to me that day), another fear washed over me altogether a week later when I received the pathologist report. Cancer?! I immediately fell to my knees.

My surgeon recommended a second surgery to remove the entire thyroid, to be followed six to eight weeks later by radiation therapy. The problem was the second surgery had to be repeated within 14 days of the first, before the scar tissue began to heal, or I'd have to wait two months.

For the next three days, all sorts of fear-filled thoughts came, and Jesus quieted each one by reminding me how much He loves me. Alone at night as I'd cry myself to sleep, I could hear His voice reassuring me that all would be okay. When anxieties arose throughout day, I'd suddenly sense His peace. And at my most anxious, just moments before the second surgery, I found courage in His Word: "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways." (Psalm 91:11 NIV) I must have read the 91st Psalm hundreds of times and never even noticed that passage until then.

Within three hours, the surgery was over. The next day, I went home. A week later, I returned to work. I was a bit weak and barely able to speak (most likely a good thing), but all was, and is, well.

Can't say that I don't still get afraid, worried or anxious. My faith isn't yet perfect, but it doesn't have to be. I just need to be willing to lean into Jesus during my anxious moments—His perfect, unconditional, unceasing love is strong enough to help me not only face my fears but also overcome them.

The next mouse that scurries across my living room had better watch out!