The Terror by Night

I had a dream we were walking along a path on the rocky seashore - among huge boulders of grey granite smoothed by the actions of the waves. Then, the path divided and I thought to take the high road while my wife and son took the low road. It seemed that the high road represented the belief that those who died in Jesus went to be with the Lord immediately, and the low road represented the belief in some sort of soul sleep or purgatory in order to wait for or prepare for His coming. It seemed that the two paths diverged at the generation who outlived the crucifiction and resurrection of my Lord. The farther along we walked, the higher above the pounding waves my path took me, and the more and more fearful I became of accidently slipping and falling and being dashed on the rocks below. To make matters worse, I could hear booming in the distance a Shakespearian actor solemnly intoning a poem by Longfellow about praying for the dead.

Waking up, I realized that I didn't want to let my loved ones suffer fear like that if I could help it. I would not let them walk down a fearful path alone. Each of us in this household have had periods of unreasoning fear. Mine began when I was dabbling in the occult. I would lie awake at night full of terror and wonder because I had cracked open the unseen world of the spirit, and discovered that that conscious part of my being was a tiny island on a vast ocean of the unconscious. I had eaten fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

But soon after that, spirits of fear started tormenting my wife with floods of doubts about her salvation. They have finally left her and are now tormenting my son who cannot even go to the bathroom on the other side of the apartment without an escort.

Western anti-supernaturalism is not an anecdote here - like I said, this is an "unreasoning" fear, the kind that drove Paul's companions into hiding on the road to Damascus. And where am I in these loved ones of mine's lives? Do I walk beside them, driving out the fear with my loving presence? No, I ridicule them at a distance, forcing them to go it alone. I don't even pray for them.

Let us pray now, then: "Dear God, it is right to respect and fear you. You are worthy of fear. Come over us and be our Champion and we will reverence and fear You always. Let your love drive out all fear from us. Let it be a covering for us. Send your Angel to guard and protect us. Send your Holy Spirit to confort us and walk along side us. And your praise will always be on our lips. We will tell of your greatness in the congregation."