Sorry, No Room Here!

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Posted by: Kathy from Afternoons | Monday, October 7th, 2024 ( 8:22am)

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7

It was about this time of year in 2012 when we had a very interesting encounter with a stranger. We had just moved from Alabama to rural Illinois and had only met a couple of our neighbors. One night we heard a knock on the door.  When I say night, it was literally the middle of the night/early morning. I nudged my husband who has no trouble sleeping through everything and said, “I think someone knocked on the door, can you go see please?” Groggily, he stumbled to the door, cracked it open, and sure enough, a man, who we had never seen before, stood there in shorts and a t-shirt drenched in sweat from the chilly autumn air. He was clearly not in his right mind, but he was strangely polite as he told us he was looking for the place he was supposed to be staying. My husband gently told him, “Sorry, man, this isn’t the place.” The man insisted it was, but there was no way we were letting him in at two in the morning with my two little girls sleeping. When he didn’t go away but went around to the side of the house, we called the police to ask them to stop by and check on the man, keeping our eyes on him through the window until they arrived. 

Now, here’s the thing, most people would have done the same thing…NOT let him into their house. If I had or if my husband had allowed that to happen, most anyone would think, “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” NO!” Because we didn’t know whether this man was a threat or something else, the smart thing was to call the authorities who are in the best position to help put our minds at ease while clarifying the situation. So, why do we so easily allow anxiety into our hearts…into our temple? All too often we let worry hijack our minds (or at least I do), but we need to remember that to quiet the alarms and see things for what they are, we just need to call for backup. And the good news is that because Jesus lives in me, help is always there, just a prayer away. And when we call upon THE Authority who resides within the premises of our hearts, He can and will address Mr. or Miss Anxiety by taking it, putting it in the squad car, and removing it from your property. We don’t have to do it on our own, friends. And the best part of it is, that when we turn things over to him, He gives us a special seal of protection over our hearts…called peace. You can’t really explain it, but you CAN experience it. 

Now, you may be wondering what happened next after the police came. They took the man away in their squad car and, though a little rattled, we were able to go back to sleep peacefully. A few days later we found out that the man had been staying with his mother down the road while recovering from surgery. He was on pain medications, and his mom didn’t know where he was. The police were able to find the right home that night and determined he was not a threat at all. We still asked his mother to keep a close eye on him and perhaps lock the doors—for their peace of mind as well as ours.

It would have been crazy to invite that guy in even just to make a phone call, let alone have a room for the night. But with Worry, once you let it in, it tries to stay the night, set up residence in your home and eventually makes you feel like YOU are the guest as it begins to call the shots in your life. Just remember, the next time Worry shows up at your home, catch it at the door, say “Sorry, no room here!” and hand it over to The Proper Authority. 

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