Sometimes it’s hard to listen to the news. News about unstable nations that don’t seem to listen to reason. News about stable nations that can’t seem to agree on anything. News about the blatant disregard taken towards our environment. News about crazy dictators who may or may not have access to horribly destructive weapons. News about humans reduced to commodities. The list goes on and on…

Being a mother has changed the way I hear these stories. I used to just shake my head in disappointment. Or get all righteously indignant about the ways the rulers of the world rule the world. But now I worry. And fear.

I fear for the future my son will grow up in. Will the earth still be in one piece? Will he be able to breathe the air and drink the water? Will he be able to live in freedom? Will he be able to make a life for himself? Will he be able to keep his own children safe? Being a mother lends itself to a lot of worst-case-scenario kinds of thinking.

But this weekend in church, a Psalm was read. A reminder not to fear.

###Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

What an encouragement to cling to! Sometimes it feels like the earth really is giving way. Nations really are in an uproar right now. It seems that kingdoms are falling everyday. But if I would just stop, and be still, and know that the God I claim to follow really is GOD, I would remember: He has it under control. And someday the wars will cease and He will be exalted among all the nations and in all the earth. I have nothing to fear.