Saturday, November 11, 2017

You Be Okay

He placed his chubby hand on my chest, looked into my eyes and spoke gravely. "You be okay. You be okay." Owen, my three year old grandson, was pretending to pierce my ears with his Nerf dart gun. I was pretending to be nervous. So, he soothed me in a way that he obviously has been soothed.

His momma rocks him and holds him when he's hurt, upset, or afraid. She knows that his boo boos will heal and that his frustrations will pass. She realizes that his fears really won't harm him, (barking dogs, moving curtains) and that he can sleep in peace. So she tells him, even if he can't see it yet, that he'll be okay.

Sometimes I still feel like a kid. I am irrational, fearful and nervous. I know that life is unfair. I've seen it countless times. Yet I still expect fairness, and feel the sting when I'm disappointed.

I know that hurting happens. People get hurt, loved ones are lost. Grief must be endured. Yet I still reverberate with shock and surprise at the pain that comes.

I have been disappointed, disillusioned and disenchanted, and still fear that my plans may fall through, or my great idea will be rejected. See...a little kid.

My daughter has suffered with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, for half her lifetime. It is an anxiety disorder which manifests itself through repetitive behaviors and obsessive thoughts. The workings of her mind are hidden. I can't see the fears that burden her, although I see what they do to her. She herself can discern how irrational her anxiety is, but that doesn't make it any less real. Once in a while she'll ask me, is everything going to be okay?

There is a reason that I always say - yes, everything is going to be okay, even when sometimes I ask that question myself. It's because of these words which are a balm to me, not just because they sound good, but because I know there is truth behind them. For every time I've been disappointed, hurt, sorrowful and anxious, there has been comfort, courage, hope and love in the words that I hold in my heart. Words like - 

When my heart was anxious within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. (Psalm 94:19 )

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. (Matt. 11:28)

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1).

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:14)

Or these words from men and women of integrity who attest to the truth of God's presence and help - 


When we choose deliberately to obey him, then he will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us with his almighty power. (Oswald Chambers)

The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter, truer and more beautiful burned the Word of God. (Corrie ten Boom)

Sometimes fear does not subside and one must choose to do it afraid. (Elisabeth Eliot)


Because I know that God is LOVE himself, that his timing is always perfect, that he knows our needs and that he cares about every little detail of our lives, because I trust that he has the answers even when I can't see them yet, and because he's promised to take all my fears, I can know, like Owen with his chubby little hand and his fathomless blue eyes, You be okay, you be okay.





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