God is everywhere. I remembered that last night while hanging with the hubs and our 22-year-old. Not that I actually forgot God was everywhere. More like I couldn’t see or feel his presence last week for a bit.
That’s what happens when you go down a rabbit hole of fear. The low frequency of this emotion keeps you in a frozen hum, lifeless, and sometimes hopeless, depending on how rogue your thoughts become. Rogue as in no filters or boundaries to prevent reason from losing its way.
When we allow our mind to become reckless in how it perceives the world around us, we risk tunneling our vision toward everything that’s wrong in the world. But the reality is, there is also and always infinite proof all around us of everything that’s right in the world. The choice is ours as to what we want to focus our attention on.
Last week I chose to see and experience fear by being consumed with the relentless negative stories in the news. The dysfunction and heartache gutted my sense of hope, making room for darkness to stage a coup. This led to dismay and, eventually, anger. That’s the thing about fear, it wears many masks, and none are compelling.
It took God speaking through a bottle of ranch dressing to get my act together. As in a bottle of Ken’s Ranch that I chucked across the kitchen during a major meltdown. Unfortunately, the lid wasn’t screwed on, so after the bottle hit the fridge and bounced onto the floor, ranch dressing sprayed everywhere. The oily white stuff was all over the appliances, wood floor, counters, and stove-top. Also on the walls, ceiling, sink, and in a zillion nooks and crannies that I probably have yet to find. In an instant, my world stopped, and I got very calm. Then proceeded to listen to God speak to me for the next 90 minutes of clean-up duty. I share the details of his message here:
Fear is a villain robbing us of hope…I was reminded of that the hard way last week.
It’s amazing where God meets us sometimes when he reveals how important it is to stay focused on him and what he alone can do.
