Last week I had the privilege of calling some members of my high school graduating class. One of the people I talked with had been married to a cousin of mine until she passed away several years ago. I didn’t know my cousin well but knew she’d had a serious illness even before they married.

My classmate told me how people discouraged him from marrying her because of her illness. He reiterated the fears people had of what would happen if he married her, and then told me, “We had forty wonderful years together. We couldn’t have biological children but she meant more to me than a dozen children.”  He is so thankful he chose not to give in to fear.

This reminded me of the day my Uncle Irvin’s wife, Tillie, told me people didn’t think Uncle Irvin should marry her because she was six years older than he. She said they were afraid she would die and he’d be left to raise their children alone. (I couldn’t help laughing since Aunt Tillie was in her late nineties and my uncle had passed away many years earlier!) Uncle Irvin had also chosen trust over fear and received the blessing of a godly wife who loved him and helped him raise their seven children.

And then there is our children’s long-time friend, Dwight, who wrestled with whether or not it was fair to marry when he was on dialysis and needed a kidney transplant. I imagine he and Christy, the woman he loved, also were told all the reasons they shouldn’t marry.

After a great deal of soul searching, they too chose faith over fear.  We were present when a police officer arrived at their wedding reception to tell Dwight a kidney, which turned out to be a perfect match, was waiting for him in Pittsburgh. Almost twenty one years later, I am still in tears at God’s wonderful affirmation of their choice of faith over fear.

If we choose to follow Jesus, each of us will have many opportunities to make a choice between fear and faith. Many voices will call out to us, trying to distract us from listening to the Voice of Truth, but we, too, can choose which voice we will listen to, which voice we will obey. I love the lyrics of The Voice of Truth, by Casting Crowns:

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I’m in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He’s holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. “Boy, you’ll never win!”
“You’ll never win!”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”
The voice of truth says, “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Father, forgive us for the many times we’ve chosen fear over faith, for the many times we have not listened and obeyed the Voice of Truth. Fill us with faith and perfect love that drives out fear. Amen