by Toni Hebel

“Toni, you may be excused from the table and are free to go out and play.” These were glorious words to hear! What child wants to be stuck at the dinner table with nothing to do except listen to adults talk about adult things when they could be out playing? I was reminded of this childhood memory when a friend from Madrid said she tells herself, in reference to concerns over the COVID 19 virus in Spain, “I am not needed in the current scene. I am excused.” 

Those words spoke to me loud and clear. “Toni, stop worrying. God’s got this!”

Fear. It’s a real emotion. It comes knocking hard, sometimes just barging in disguising itself as anxiety, dread, hopelessness, paranoia, and most commonly, at least for a thinker like me... worry. It can be debilitating! 

God addresses the topic of fear, aka worry, repeatedly in the Bible. He says things like, 

“Peace I leave you.” 

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  

“Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

“Do not worry about tomorrow.”

“Be anxious for nothing.” 

God can be trusted. He is good—and He’s good to you and me. 

Because we are His children, we are invited to sit with Him at His table. God the Father is there along with the Son and the Spirit. At His table, He provides for us. He is intimate with us. His table is a place of safety. It is a place of unity and peace. At His table we are blessed, cared for, and enjoyed. He serves amazing meals there. But sometimes, after the meal, He says to us, “You may be excused… you’re free to go out and play.” 

We don’t understand God’s ways. We don’t understand His timing. We rarely know His plans. But what we do know is that our God can be trusted because He is good, He loves us, and He always has our best interests at heart. The next time fear comes knocking, imagine with me that the Father, Son, and Spirit are at the “Situation Table” discussing their next move. Our input isn’t needed. In fact, we have been excused from the table “to go out and play.” God’s got this. Say it to yourself. Say it out loud. “My child, you have been excused…you’re free to go out and play.” 

As I sit here writing this piece, I look up and directly in front of me is a large black snake wrapped around a tree branch very close to my deck. It has its head raised as if it is going to strike. I have never seen a snake in our trees before. I am alarmed. I feel fear taking over. I quickly take a picture and send it to my sons and son-in-law to get their advice on whether or not this snake is dangerous. Immediately they tell me it is probably a kingsnake, not dangerous. I then discover that a kingsnake eats a wide variety of creatures and will even kill a rattlesnake and eat the rattler! 

God speaks once again. 

What “appeared” harmful was actually not. It was beneficial! The enemy will try to deceive us into believing that what we see or feel will be harmful. He wants us to worry. He will deceive us into believing we need to handle it. We need to figure it out. Not true. Our emotions, following the enemy’s leading, lie. The truth is, worry is a wasted emotion because God’s got this! We have been excused! Our input is not needed in the current scene. God can be trusted to take care of it. 

“__________, you may be excused from the table… you’re free to go out and play!”