Alive - by Dave Smith

need and long for.
THE PEACE THAT FREES AND
FILLS US
In his first proclamation of peace, Jesus had the express purpose of
freeing the disciples from their paralysing fear (shown by the fact
they were huddled together with the doors locked – see vv19–20).
FREED FROM FEAR
When our oldest daughter, Emily, was very little she would sometimes
wake up sounding distressed. We would go into her room to find her
standing in her cot and she would be saying, ‘Noise, noise!’ To this
day I still don’t know whether the ‘noise’ that she was troubled by
was real (external) or imagined (internal). But we would go to her,
pick her up and speak reassuring words to her and almost instantly
she would become peaceful, we would lay her down and she would
go back to sleep.
I trust you’d agree that there’s often a lot of ‘noise’ in life that can
cause us fear and distress. Sometimes that noise is external. This
can be global or national events such as wars, famines, pandemics or
recessions. Or it may be personal or family troubles such as ill-health,
relational difficulties, financial pressures or bereavement. But there is
also internal noise that we must deal with. Sometimes this is
triggered by our external circumstances. Other times, though, it is
caused by inner fears and anxieties that are irrational and rooted in
our own upbringing, psychological make-up or life experiences. Such
fears can be summarised in the acrostic False Evidence Appearing
Real.
Now of course not all fear is bad – sometimes it’s an appropriate