Sound of Surviving Blog

It’s funny how going through hard times can give you such a strong faith in God, if you’ll let them. How what the devil uses as fear and pain can cause you to lean into God more.

The other day, I found a small metal tag in my grandmother’s jewelry box. It looked almost like a dog tag. When I looked closer, I could see a small inscription had been etched into it. As I held it up to the light, I could make out her maiden name and the address she lived at as a child in Camden, New Jersey. I asked my mom about it, and she said that during World War II, Americans had to wear a tag with their names and addresses on it, on a necklace. They were known as civilian dog tags. These dog tags were to identify bodies in the very real possibility of bombings or air raids by enemy aircraft.

I cannot imagine having to wear a dog tag on me, knowing that at any moment, a plane could fly overhead and kill me along with those I love. Those civilian dog tags were constant reminders that at any given second, your life could end.

However, I think this thing that would have instilled fear in so many, if it were to happen today, is what, in turn, made that generation of men and women the “great generation”. They learned early on, not to take things for granted. Especially life itself. They learned at a young age, what walking by faith meant. My grandmother chose every day, even as she pulled that tag over her neck, to trust in God, that he would protect her and those she loved. And every day, as he did, she praised him for that, and for everything. Even despite not knowing if there’d be food on the table that night, she trusted God, choosing faith over fear every single day.

What should have caused her to fear this world, caused her to be that much more faithful and trusting in God. I wonder what would happen if, instead of being led by fear, if we boldly, even if blindly, walked by faith instead?

When we allow fear to lead us, we wander into a never-ending rabbit hole, one filled with anxiety, doubt, and worry. If we put our trust in Christ and put our hope not in what we see in the world around us, but in what his promise to us is as Paul tells us to in Hebrews 11:1, the world around us becomes a lot less daunting.

We learn not to fear the storm, because we know our lifeguard can walk on water. And we learn that even if we feel like the current of life is pulling us under, that he is always there to bring us back up.

I think the greatest thing my grandmother taught me is that when the raids on our lives come, by land or air or sea, and they will, the best thing I can do is to put my trust in the greatest defense mechanism there ever was or will be, the God of all creation.