(Aside: If you were curious where the phrase originated from, you might find the answer interesting.)
This phrase seems to describe the uneasiness that I struggle with every once in a while. It’s like every thing is going great at home, at work, in my family. It is almost like things are going too well, and I am waiting for that other shoe to drop and let The Unfortunate Event make its entrance in our lives.
Sometimes its a small thing, sometimes big, but always unexpected and unwelcome.
A flooded basement, a broken down car, the unexpected phone call with bad news. And then there are those things that you don’t even want to mention out loud, for fear they might happen.
Even as I write this, I can feel that pit in my stomach, that nervous anxiety that comes when waiting for the other shoe to drop. I wonder how I will handle it. Will it be big or small this time? Will it involve my wife or kids? How can I bear it? The anxiety grows…and blooms into fear.
There is a word for this type of thinking: Unbelief.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers…against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
–Eph. 6:12
There is Someone out to get me, to destroy me and take my family down. He puts me on this anxious path to fear, dragging my thoughts to the worst possible conclusion.
I fear because I don’t believe that God will be there, that He won’t come through. I’m afraid that He’ll let me down and leave me to my own devices to handle those Unfortunate Situations. But those fears are not based in Truth.
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
–Rom. 8:32
And so the battle begins: Will I let my fears control me? Or will I trust that what God says is true?
Today, our pastor spoke on Unbelief out of Mark 9. The father of the son with the demon cried out to Jesus, “…If You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” You can hear his desperation. He was at the end of his rope and desperate.
Jesus’ response: “ ’If you can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” A promise. A rope thrown to a drowning man. A life line.
And the man responds grabbing the rope: “I believe, help my unbelief.”
That is my prayer today. Lord, I trust you in this situation. I give you my anxiety and fears. I trust that even if the other shoe drops, You will be there. You will throw the rope. You will be my strength.
Help my unbelief.
