Night Terrors in Broad Daylight

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7

Recently my son Jonah came down with a respiratory infection and was prescribed an antibiotic. Within 24 hours of taking the first dose, he twice woke in a state of complete terror. With eyes wide open and body stiff, he screamed loudly and clawed at an unseen enemy. It was totally pitiful in itself, but made even more so because, by clawing at that unseen enemy, neither Mark nor I could get at him to properly comfort him.

This made us very sad. Not only was Jonah suffering from the infection, his suffering was compounded by the terrors. And although the fears of his dream were not valid, in his stupor those fears were obviously more real to him than anything else.

Many years ago, during our first year of refugee work, I too had a very bad reaction to a drug. My body had the adrenaline rush that accompanies fear and, because our situation had so many very scary elements to it, it did not take long at all for my entire mind to become saturated with fear. So, sadly, long after the effects of the drug were gone, the fearful thoughts remained. I felt helpless and hopeless because I had no idea how to get out of the cycle of wrong thinking. 

Thankfully, God in His mercy began an amazing work in my life. After I became tired of my sin (sadly, that took quite a while), I was able to begin to understand the solution God was offering. 

First and foremost, I had to admit what God said about my fear was true. My fear was unbelief. It had its roots in not trusting God's love for me (1 John 4:18). I needed to confess my fear as sin and ask Him for help to turn my wrong thinking to correct, biblical thinking. 

God taught me yet another important extremely important principle. Fear replaced by praise transforms the awful to the amazing! And while it can be extremely challenging, it is possible in any situation to not just trust, but to actually praise God. By praising, I not only acknowledge, I actually celebrate God's sovereign control over even the most difficult of personal circumstances.

Jonah's terror, a physical reaction to a drug, is, of course, not sin. However, in contrast, when I react in sinful fear to my circumstances I am, in effect, screaming and clawing at God. And like Mark and I were grieved we could not comfort Jonah as we wished when he was so distraught, the heart of God is also grieved when I fight the very circumstances He has, for His greater purposes, allowed.

Image Pixabay "asthenop"

See Signed, Sealed, Not Yet Delivered.
See Pizza Drama Queens.