Sudden terror

Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the LORD will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught.  – Proverbs 3v25-26

I think the thing I dread the most is the things I don’t see coming. I remember my first scary internet viral video. It was a beautiful scene with a car driving through the countryside. Lovely classical music was playing in the backgrounds. It made you want to be there. Suddenly, without warning, there was a loud screech as a demon like image came on the screen.

Everyone had a good laugh and it spread like wildfire because we all enjoy a certain kind of sudden terror.

But there is another kind of sudden terror that is no fun. Our family’s most recent ‘sudden terror’ came on the 20^th of December, 2009. That was the day that the doctor told Matt and I that Michelle had leukaemia. That news too spread quickly, but it was not the exciting kind of sudden terror. It the life sapping, sucker punch, ‘I can’t breathe’, ‘what are we going to do now’ kind of terror. It was the kind of terror that knocks you back. A sudden terror is the kind that you can’t get ready for.

There are scary times that you can prepare for to a certain extent. It was this way with Michelle’s transplant. We had a few weeks to make plans, figure out transport, pack bags, decide where the girls were going to be and when and just generally get ready. Although the situation was its own kind of terror, at least we could prepare. Those are no too bad. Most of us can handle those with even the most basic faith.

But God wants us to get through those most sudden of terrors. The only way to do that is to have a constant abiding in Him. We need to remember that in those unexpected times God will be our confidence, and if we are trusting Him He will not let us stumble.

Only that deep abiding day-to-day faith can prepare us for that sudden terror.