Not My Favorite Holiday
It’s that time of year. We’ve seen evidence of it for weeks — in home stores, grocery stores, and in people’s front yards. Jack-o-Lanterns, ghouls, giant skeletons, bats, black cats, and ten-pound bags of candy on display in the front of grocery stores can only mean one thing. It’s almost Halloween.
I’ll be honest, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I’m not fond of all the creepy decorations seen in people’s front yards. I’m more of a real pumpkin and fall foliage kind of girl, even though living in Florida the pumpkins rot if you buy them too early and we don’t get the beautiful jewel-toned colors of autumn. (That’s why my husband and I enjoy going to the mountains of North Carolina in October.)
Watching the children roam the streets in their costumes is fun but also anxiety-producing. Our neighborhood gets a lot of trick-or-treaters so it’s a steady stream of tiny, and not-so-tiny visitors for about three hours. Greeting so many while attempting to be friendly is a stretch for this introvert. I worry about running out of candy or even worse, being stuck with too much candy if it’s a slow night. And, have you noticed, that if you get stuck with a bunch of candy, it’s always the cheaper, not as tasty variety? Rarely do you have leftover Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or M&M’s.
Scary Or Amusing?
I grew up watching the old B movies on Saturday afternoons. The show on our local television station was called Creature Feature hosted by Dr. Paul Bearer. Perhaps you recall watching movies about Dracula, Frankenstein, the Werewolf, or Godzilla when you were a kid. Then there were the movies with the giant, mutant spiders and insects, aliens from outer space, mummies, or creatures from lagoons. In retrospect, these movies were pretty silly but that’s about the level of scared I wish to be.
One thing that I don’t understand about all of this Halloween creepiness is why people want to pay big bucks to be scared to death — people jumping out at them in gory costumes wielding chainsaws or any other menacing weapon. Vacant-eyed zombies stalking. Nope, that’s not for me.
The skeletons, vampires, mummies, and werewolves don’t scare me. I’m actually more afraid of spiders. And the old folklore stories like the headless horseman amuse more than spark fear.
I do believe there are evil forces in the world, that there is a devil and he has his demons. I steer clear of them but do not fear them because of my faith. The apostle John wrote to the believers “for he who is in you (Jesus) is greater than he who is in the world (Satan)”.
There are, however, things that I do fear, things that send a chill down my spine or cause anxious thoughts if I dwell on them too long. There are things that keep me awake in the wee hours of the night. Here are a few of them.
The Things That Frighten Me The Most
- I fear being alone. I don’t mean the hours of quiet solitude during an ordinary day. I fear being old and alone. My parents are gone and my children live hundreds of miles away. It’s just me and my husband. I can trace this fear back to an elderly woman I saw years ago. She was at our local clinic and a man from a retirement home was loading her wheelchair into a transport van. I thought it was so sad that there was no one with her to take her to her appointment and perhaps out to lunch afterward. Of course, I could have been totally wrong. She could have been perfectly content and excited to get back to her friends at the retirement home.
- I fear being separated from my family. As I said before, hundreds of miles separate us. Given the climate, both literally and figuratively, I fear that there may be some natural or man-caused crisis in our nation that would prevent me from getting to my children and grandson. I fear that different beliefs or opinions would cause alienation. I love my family deeply so the thought of not being able to be with them is a real fear.
- I fear Alzheimer’s. My husband’s father succumbed to that dreaded disease when he was in his mid-sixties. My husband has already outlived his father. Every time he forgets something or acts a little off, I worry. I now realize that most of the time, it’s simply that we remember different things. I do pray that God spares us from that difficult road.
- I fear cancer. My mother just died after battling cancer for nearly thirty years so it is understandable that my thoughts drift this way. My father was being treated for a form of cancer when he died last summer. It is clearly in my genes. Any new ache or pain can put me in a tailspin of worry. I can have my funeral planned out in a matter of minutes.
- I fear the future for my grandson, Leo, and any other grandchildren I may have. The world is such a scary place. It has always been scary, but if you are of a certain age, your mind also probably reels at the changes we have seen. It seems like the world is moving farther and farther away from God. What will it be like when my precious Leo is a young man?
- I fear failing at life. I believe that God has a plan for my life — a way for me to serve him with the talents he has blessed me with. But, what if I’ve missed it? What if I misunderstood what his plan was? What if I’m going in a direction completely opposite of what he has laid out for me?
I had an interesting typo right before I listed my fears. Instead of the sentence reading, “These are the things that keep me awake in the wee hours of the night,” I typed thinks instead of things. That is probably a more accurate statement. Isn’t it usually the thoughts that we dwell on are what get us into trouble? And isn’t it interesting that it always seems to happen at about three o’clock in the morning?
One Good Way To Combat Fear
The scriptures admonish us to “fear not”. I tried googling how often the phrase is used in the Bible and the answers varied. One source said the King James Version of the Bible used “fear not” 71 times. That number didn’t include the phrases “do not be afraid” or “be courageous”. Another source said the admonition to “fear not” is mentioned 365 times, once for each day of the year. I don’t think the exact number of times is crucial to know. I think that the main point is that God knew we were prone to fear so he encourages us often to not be afraid.
One of the main ways we can get a handle of our fear is to meditate on the promises God has given us in his word. These are a few of my favorite verses on which to meditate when I am filled with fear. I hope you will find them meaningful as well.
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10 "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6 "The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1 "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24 "For he has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.' So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; What can man do to me?'" Hebrews 13:5b-6 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid." John 14:27
How about you? What are you fearful of in this season? How do you combat your fears? Are there any additional scriptures you find useful? I would love to hear.
Kim Wilbanks 