Faith or Fear?

Needless to say, I have spent a lot of time over the last year and a half since Piper’s passing, reflecting on my life, and in particular since 2006, when we packed up our belongings and moved to Oklahoma to begin a new chapter in life and experience another great adventure in Faith.  What we believed was to be the completion of an almost life-long dream of attending Bible school subsequent with the pioneering of a new church back in our home state… well… turned out to be a different kind of adventure that we never would have dreamed of.

That adventure that started to unfold less than a year after our arrival and very enjoyable first months, suddenly changed our focus from study, additional training and eventual ministry, to a focus on family… and in particular, the needs of my wife as she began to outwardly demonstrate the unmistakable symptoms of what would later be diagnosed as the Early On-set of Alzheimer’s.

It is interesting to note that as we swung into the initial stages of testing, diagnostics, visits to various clinics, specialists’ offices and hospitals, I cannot recall any times of panic, self-pity or fear, from either Piper and I.  In fact, I can’t recall having to deal with any of those symptoms (anger, frustration, exhaustion and sore muscles… YES! – but not the others!) until after she was gone and I had time to think about what we had been through for the past eleven years!

Ephesians 1:10 tells us that God “planned to bring all of (our) history to its goal in Christ. Then Christ would be the head of everything in heaven and on earth.”  A couple of verses later it goes on to say that “He planned all of this so that we who had already focused our hope (or expectations) on Christ would praise him and give him glory.”  These verses succinctly describe the mode that we automatically went into as we began to receive the preliminary explanations of what the doctor’s thought might be happening with Piper.  I say “thought” because we did not receive the definitive confirmation on Piper’s situation until two years later after we had finished school and returned to our home in California.

Ephesians 1:13 concludes the explanation of our reaction, when Paul encouraged his readers declaring, “You heard and believed the message of truth, the Good News that he has saved you. In him you were sealed with the Holy Spirit whom he promised.” (All verses – God’s Word ©)

Our first, foremost and to be perfectly honest, ONLY response to the dire situation was a total commitment to FAITH in God and His Word.  Again, looking back, you can almost say that God was preparing us for this particular situation since the early days of our marriage.  We began to study, grow in and follow the message of FAITH soon after we were married, and once we left the Baptist church, we ended up ministering in churches that taught a concentrated message of FAITH in God and His Word for over thirty plus years.  

And of course, it didn’t hurt that during our time in Oklahoma that I was attending a Faith-Based Bible School (many would say THE Faith-Based Bible School) and church and were thereby literally saturated in the Word for three years!  When the pressure was on… it was the only thing we knew to do!  The writer of Hebrews gives us a clear and succinct explanation of the Christian definition of FAITH.  Hebrews 11:1 states, “Faith assures us of things we expect and convinces us of the existence of things we cannot (yet) see.” (God’s Word ©)

I learned through all the experiences and inter-actions with others throughout the years of Piper’s and my battle for her very life, that FAITH is driven by one’s conviction in God’s Word, while FEAR is driven by one’s conviction in their own words.  I saw unfold before my own eyes that FAITH focuses in on FULFILLMENT while FEAR focuses in on FAILURE.

In my experience… when you are so focused and committed to FAITH in God and His Word, there just isn’t time to even think about the FEAR that what you’re believing for and the actions that you are taking in correspondence with your beliefs, might not work!  We also experienced many of the positive “SIDE EFFECTS” of our faith in the midst of the fight from 2007 to 2018 when Piper moved her official residence from earth to heaven (Hummm… I wonder if she has changed her voter registration yet…).

Some of those “SIDE EFFECTS” included JOY in the midst of the difficulties, a deep inner PEACE while everything in life as we knew it shook and was drastically changed, an abundance of WISDOM, UNDERSTANDING and the ability to make ACCURATE DECISIONS and GOOD JUDGMENTS, FAVOR almost everywhere we went and with everyone we went to for assistance, FINANCIAL BLESSINGS and the LENGTH of DAYS for my wife in the midst of the situation she was dealing with.  (I mentioned in a recent post that Piper actually lived five or more years longer than what the experts consider to be the normal life span of an individual afflicted with Alzheimer’s)

And now I live with the PEACE, JOY and SATISFACTION in knowing that Piper is totally set free from the decimating symptoms of Alzheimer’s and is presently “holy, happy and perfect” in God’s presence! (Ephesians 1:4, Psalm 16:11 God’s Word ©)  Can you imagine how HOT she looks today???  Whew… now that’s something for me to look forward to isn’t it!

So, as our week concludes and we look forward to the weekend, I would hope to inspire and encourage each of you reading this post today to build up your FAITH levels by boning up on the Word of God and thereby dispel any attacks of FEAR that might be attempting to blur the important decisions you need to make every day in your life!  Let your FOCUS be on God’s FULFILLMENT of His promises to you, instead of any FEAR of FAILURE without His Word on the subject at hand!