Fear Not
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. – Isaiah 41:10 NKJV.
My Mother worked in the civil service at Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Oklahoma for five years during 1960-65. The base, which is no longer an active Air Force base, is only about six miles from our home; but we do still have B-52s flying over our house from Altus Air Force Base. My Mother worked as a food service worker for about a year, and then began working as a keypunch operator on base. To gain entry to the base, there was only one way, and that was through an armed guard station on the east side. Every vehicle, to gain entry had to have a government issued decal on the front bumper. If you did not have the decal, you had to obtain a visitor’s pass, which usually was only available during the daytime.
Because of an accident, my parents traded cars, and the new car did not yet have the approved decal. My memory is somewhat blurry of the details of why, but I remember well the night my Mother infiltrated the Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base. This was during the time of the tensions of the cold war, and there were always B-52s with nuclear weapons fueled and ready to take off. We could see them from the road with armed guards and German shepherds. If I remember right, if scrambled, all of the planes could be in the air in fifteen minutes. The air base should have been a very secure location, and it was for the most part.
Apparently my Mother had left something at her workplace, or needed something from her workplace; but because of it being nighttime, and not have the authorized decal she was unable to obtain access. However, that did not stop my Mother. With my sister and I with her in the car (I was probably ten or eleven years old.) she simply drove through a place between two houses where there was a small gap in the fence. She drove between those two houses, across their grass, into the street and then to her workplace. We left the base the same way we came; across the lawns, between the houses, and through the gap in the fence. So much for being a secure facility!
Fear, I experienced fear the night my Mother invaded the air base. It is not a pleasant experience, but it was one of the first times in my life that I experienced real intense fear. Looking back I realize now that not much would have happened to us even if we had been caught. Likely they would have given my Mother a stern warning, and sent us on our way out the front gate.
Since that time, I have experienced fear many times, but I never seek it out. Fear usually seems to come upon us unexpectedly, often suddenly. Often fear like that night on the air base is exaggerated, blown up out of proportion. Later we realize that things are not as bad as we thought they were, and that we will live another day. In the daylight, things never seem as bad as they do in the middle of the night.
Whatever you may be going through, if you know Jesus as your Savior, He is there with you. The Lord knew this thing was going to happen, and He is not in a panic mode. The Lord never panics. This is what our Lord would want you to know: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”