Fear

Would you forget the worst moment of your life? This question was raised in the recently published novel, Fear, by Austin, Texas, author Jeff Abbot, dealing with PTSD or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Fear by Jeff Abbott

Raf and I discussed this. My first thought, and one I continue to believe, is no. I can truly say I have had only one truly bad moment, and that was when my daddy was killed in an automobile accident when I was 18. That happened, and my life changed forever, but would I choose to forget it? No, that would mean forgetting a portion of Daddy, and I would never, every want to forget the smallest detail. Would I change the fact that he died. Of course, but that can not be done. You can't, as Aslan said in the Chronicles of Narnia, ask, "What if". If didn't happen, and we must go on and live with the what, not the if.

Bishop Jack Leo Iker and Bishop Robert Duncan

Tonight we heard Bishop Robert Duncan preach at the 15th anniversary celebration of the consecration of Bishop Jack Leo Iker, our bishop and the Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth, as a bishop. This was also Bishop Iker's 34th year in the priesthood, and Bishop Duncan's 13th year as a bishop. It was a grand celebration. The procession into the church was accompanied by the song, The Church's One Foundation. The hymn's third and fourth verses speak so directly to what is happening in our many Christian churches throughout the world:

Though with a scornful wonder
men see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed;
yet saints their watch are keeping,
their cry goes up, "How long?"
and soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.

Mid toil and tribulation,
and tumult of her war
she waits the consummation
of peace for evermore;
till with the vision glorious
her longing eyes are blessed,
and the great Church victorious
shall be the Church at rest.

Bishop Duncan commented on the fact that we must go through these trial in order to be the Church victorious, that we are here to "shepherd" and to "fish" and to preform the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

So as we stand on the threshold of becoming the Church victorious, we must know that the "toil, tribulation, and war" of the Church are all about us, and we know that we are armed in battle, through Christ Jesus. We also know that we are being led by a great and courageous shepherd, Bishop Jack Leo Iker, and we are blessed to have such a strong, prayerful, God-fearing man to lead us into this battle and beyond to the Church victorious. God bless Bishop Iker and his wife, Donna, friends from kindergarten who have been married 40 years this June.

So to tie this in with the Fear factor of Abbott's book, we here in the Diocese of Fort Worth are not afraid, because we know that Jesus is with us to keep us strong, to hold us up, and that Bishop Iker, as his human presence, is here to guide us away from fear and into the Light of Christ. So these trials will not be/are not our worst moments, but rather, they will be our greatest moments for in these trials we are made strong people, stronger Christian people.

God bless us, everyone.