Fear or Resolve?

Somebody recently tried to break into our house through the basement door.  We have an alarm system that would have gone off had the attempt been successful, so I'm not too worried about it.  That type of thing can happen to anybody, anywhere.  A few months ago someone tried to break into our garage, so we are always kind of "aware" that things like that do happen in our neighborhood.

I share these examples because almost everyone I know who lives incarnationally in blighted urban nieghborhoods has stories of things that were stolen or cars that were broken into.  I don't expect our experiences here in Homewood to be any different, although we pray that God would protect our family.  Stuff is just stuff.  Honestly, if our car was stolen I don't think it would bother me that much.  It's just a car.  If our house was tagged or harmed somehow, it wouldn't bother me that much.  It's just a house.  We've worked with at-risk kids for many years, and over the course of that time we've had money and things stolen from us at times.  Big deal.  It's just money and stuff. 

Where the doubt and fear really starts to creep in for me is when I think about something bad happening to my wife or my daughters.  I do my best to protect them, but in the end God is in control of our lives.  He has called us to live in Homewood.  The enemy tries to take events like the attempted break in the other day and fan those anxious thoughts into flames so that we will want to leave the great work that is going on with the young people here in Homewood.  Actually, though, if I really depend on God... then those attacks just add to our resolve to want to continue on with the work here.  God has a way of strengthening our faith through difficult experiences.  I'm looking forward to seeing how God is going to work through these circumstances.