"All my fears release. Let them on wings take flight, never more to cloud my sight."

 Hymn: "Come, Holy Spirit, Come" - Marian Wood Chaplin (1914-     )

Tune: CHAPLIN (also by Marian Wood Chaplin)

You can ask anyone who knows me well: I am a person of great faith and of great fear! That may seem like an oxymoron, but my guess is that is true of more of us than we may want to admit. We believe that God watches over us, we trust him implicitly, we have great confidence in his workings in our lives; BUT we are still people bound by fear.

For those of us who will admit that we are fearful types, this hymn-line may well serve as our prayer for today. Have you ever noticed the way a falconer holds the bird of prey in his/her hands and then releases it into the air, almost as if tossing it? I wish I could do that with my fears. I wish I could step out into my back yard and perform that kind of circus act. Off those fears would fly; but unlike the circus act, I would not hold out my gloved arm onto which the fear could return.

My vision has been too often blurred by my fears -- how about yours? How many things might we have achieved in our careers or for the kingdom if we had simply tossed our fears into the air and watched them take flight -- not to someone else down the street, but into the ever-collecting nail-scarred hands of the One who commands us over and over in scripture, "Do not be afraid." "Do not fear."

I don't even want to think about it. I don't want to face those facts. I'm even afraid of that!

Another great hymn text says, "Give to the winds your fears." Is the hymnal trying to tell us something?

Pardon me for a few minutes. I need to go out in the back yard and release a bird that's been preying on me long enough now!

[Appears in BAPTIST HYMNAL 1991 and CELEBRATING GRACE - no recording found]