{"id":763,"date":"2021-07-08T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/?p=763"},"modified":"2021-07-07T20:30:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T00:30:33","slug":"i-know-you-are-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/i-know-you-are-with-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I know you are with me"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know you are with me.
\n<\/span>You know me, and I hate you. <\/span><\/p>\n

I know you are with me.
\n<\/span><\/i>You know me, but you love me.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Darkness, judgment, pain \u2013
\n<\/span>I do not want to know you anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to know you so much more \u2013 
\n<\/span><\/i>Source of light, grace, and hope.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I do not know when 
\n<\/span>You will mess with my mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

You know when
\n<\/span><\/i>I will break your heart,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Or when you will attack 
\n<\/span>and tear me to pieces.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when l will stumble 
\n<\/span><\/i>and fall into pieces.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

And you come chasing after me,
\n<\/span>Threatening that I am not enough,
\n<\/span>Telling me that I will always fail. <\/span><\/p>\n

But you come chasing after me,   
\n<\/span><\/i>Declaring that you are enough,
\n<\/span><\/i>Reminding me that your love never fails.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

You destroy life
\n<\/span>You detain peace
\n<\/span>You degrade meaning
\n<\/span>Yet…<\/span><\/p>\n

You restore life
\n<\/span><\/i>You offer hope
\n<\/span><\/i>You provide purpose.
\n<\/span><\/i>So\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I let you in
\n<\/span>When you knock.
\n<\/span>I let go,
\n<\/span>Then you take control.
\n<\/span>My heart, mind, and soul,
\n<\/span>I submit to you.
\n<\/span>And I tremble, 
\n<\/span>For I know
\n<\/span>You are with me.<\/span><\/p>\n

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder—
\nWe all fear something in this world. I fear failure and disappointing those around me; others fear spiders, heights, closed spaces, the unknown, death, or losing a loved one. Not all fears are necessarily bad, but when we submit to these fears, letting them invade our thoughts and take over our actions, they limit us. Trembling in the presence of these fears prohibits us from loving God, loving others, and spreading the good news of Jesus\u2019 love. When I submit to my fears of failing and disappointing others, I mistakenly attribute my significance to the things I do to please people and please God, rather than center my worth on what He has done and will continue to do for me and this world. When I focus on living up to other people\u2019s expectations, I get caught up in trying to reach a certain end goal and am too distracted to enjoy the process of growth along the way. I am unable to experience God, let alone share those experiences with others.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, fearing God means to be in awe and wonder of His greatness and submit to Him. God is greater than everything \u2013 He is the omniscient Creator who has power over all things, from spiders to death. Therefore, submitting to Him is freeing and empowering, in contrast to submitting to the limiting fears of this world. Trembling in His presence enables us to experience His holiness, righteousness, and unending joy.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I can be so focused on myself and my fears that I forget about the Almighty God who loves and saves. However, choosing to fear God instead of worldly things helps me to remember God\u2019s goodness, power, and hope. When I take time to regularly reflect on my life through journaling, prayer, and sharing with others the ways I\u2019ve been experiencing God, I can see how God is working in and around my life. I can trust in Him.<\/p>\n

Fear is among us, but so is He \u2013 for whom are you trembling?<\/p>\n

Originally published in The Williams Telos Issue 14, FEAR<\/em><\/p>\n

Written by Christie Yang ’23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know you are with me. You know me, and I hate you.  I know you are with me. You know me, but you love me. Darkness, judgment, pain \u2013 I do not want to know you anymore. I want to know you so much more \u2013  Source of light, grace, and hope. I do … Continue reading “I know you are with me”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49347],"tags":[49360,49355],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issues","tag-fear","tag-poem"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":766,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/telos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}