When You Have to Do Something That Terrifies You

Rhonda Paulson was sitting in a training class in

Tennessee when the instructor mentioned, almost in passing,

that a little girl had slept on the floor of that office the

night before. Rhonda and her husband, Corey, were there to

become foster parents. The class met in a Department of

Children's Services building, one of those spaces that's all

cubicles and fluorescent lights. And that's where they found out

how this actually works. When the state takes a child out of a

home, somebody puts that child in a car and drives them to an

office like this one. Then they wait. Sometimes they wait eight

hours. Sometimes nobody has found them a bed by dark, so

they sleep right there. Rhonda looked around the room at the

cubicles and started to cry. She kept picturing a little girl

walking in with everything she owned in a black trash bag and

lying down on a conference room floor. And Rhonda says that's

when she heard God ask her a question. These are my children.

What are you going to do? Here's what Rhonda says her answer was.

I had no idea. She was a mom in East Tennessee. She had never

started an organization in her life, and she knew nothing about

how you'd even begin. A year later, on a Tuesday afternoon in

November, the phone rang at 345. It was the Carter County office.

Within the hour, Rhonda and Corey and their two kids were

pulling up to the back door to pick up a little boy. His name

was Isaiah, and the picture wouldn't leave her alone. A

house. Not an office. A house with a bathtub and somebody

waiting with a hot meal, so no kid ever spent the night on a

conference room floor again. Here's the part she couldn't get

past. An idea in her head was free. The second you say it out

loud, people look at you and decide whether you're serious or

whether you've lost your mind. first board meeting with a group

of people and no money. Then a friend told her about a house

for sale in Carter County and said she'd let it go for $75,

000. 000. She didn't even have $75, 000. So she picked a date,

August 4th, and booked a luncheon and invited her town to

come. And she was going to have to stand up in front of all of

them and ask. We'll come back to what happened. But

first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm

Bart Leger. Since we're talking about doing something that

terrifies you, as I've said before, I'm an introvert. Left

to myself, I'd pick the back corner every time and let

somebody else do the talking. And God called me into a line of

work where I stand up in front of people and speak week after

week. Early on, I went looking for a version of ministry where

I could stay behind the scenes and never have to do that. Well,

I couldn't find one. In the beginning, before I got up to

preach, my stomach would nod up. But I did it anyway, with my

knees shaking, because I'm more sure of who's asking than I am

scared of what he's asking. Maybe you know that feeling.

There's a thing you know you're supposed to do, and you're

scared to death of doing it. Send the email. Have the

conversation you've been putting off.

God knew his people would feel exactly this. Again and again in

Scripture, he tells them the same thing. Don't be afraid. And

he never leaves it as a command, hanging in the air. He gives

them a reason. Listen to Isaiah 41.10 Don't be afraid, for I am

with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will

strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my

victorious right hand. Look at what he promises His presence

first, I am with you. Then, his strength for the middle of it. I

will strengthen you and help you and hold you up when you feel

like you're going down. That is a promise for the moment your

voice is shaking and your palms are wet. He meets you right

there, while your knees are knocking, before anything has

gone well. So here's what that means for you. Courage is doing

the terrifying thing while you're still terrified. Because

God is with you in it. The shaking don't disqualify you.

Rhonda didn't wait to stop being scared before she booked that

luncheon. She stood up and asked with her heart pounding, and God

took it from there. Now, let me tell you what happened after

Rhonda stood up and asked. By August 30th, 26 days later, the

money was in. They bought the house in September, and then the

town showed up. 23 firefighters from Elizabethton and Johnson

City tore the place down to the studs. A construction company

remodeled it for free. And a real estate office installed

landscaping and a playground out back. A furniture store

furnished the whole house and delivered it. They painted the

front bright red so a kid could find it from the road. And what

started with a woman crying in a cubicle, who had no idea what

she was going to do, has grown to dozens of Isaiah 117 houses

across several states, serving thousands of children a year.

Rhonda later wrote a book about it. And the thing she keeps

coming back to is what God can do with what she calls a very

scared little yes. A scared little yes. That's all she had

that day. God took it and built a house with a red door. Here's

today's challenge. Name the thing you already know you need

to do, the one that scares you, and then write it down in one

sentence. Then do the smallest piece of it today. While your

knees are still shaking, send one email. Make the one call.

You don't have to feel brave before you move. You just have

to move and trust that the God who said, I am with you, meant

it. Father, you know the thing that each of us is scared to do.

You've seen us put it off and call our fear by nicer names.

Thank you that you don't wait for us to feel brave. You

promise to be with us in the middle of it, to strengthen us

and hold us up. Give us the courage to take the first

shaking step today and remind us that you are right there in it.

In Jesus' name, amen. If Daily Devotions for Busy Lives has

been an encouragement to you, would you take a minute and

leave a rating and review? It helps more people find these

devotions, and it only takes a moment. I'd be so grateful. And

thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.

Remember, courage is doing the scary thing with your knees

still shaking, because the God who says, I am with you, is in

it with you. Come back next time for more encouragement to help

you live grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a

great day.