Taken from ‘Nehemiah in the Nineties’ by Mark Tolec.
In life, it is generally wise to not show fear, and I learnt this in a stark way when I visited South Africa in the early 90’s, during the transition between apartheid and democratic rule.
I decided to break up my journey from my cousin’s farm back to Johannesburg and stopped one evening in a small South African town between Durban and Jo’burg. Having booked into a hotel, I decided to have a look around the town. It was about 10 pm and I was the only one looking at the buildings and enjoying the ambience in the town square.
Thinking I had the place to myself, I headed back to the hotel when around a corner came a group of lively young black men. They were in high spirits, and it looked like they had been drinking, jostling and laughing with one another as they went on their way. But when they saw me on my own, they all fell silent and as one man started walking towards me.
I remember being so suddenly frightened that it felt like an icy hand clutching my heart and insides. Despite an ‘arrow’ prayer, things were not looking good, but then within me I heard a still, small voice which I knew was the Holy Spirit. The voice said, ‘Do not show fear.’
Heart pounding, I started walking towards the group in as relaxed manner as I could. When the gap between us had closed to twenty yards I made eye contact with as many of them as possible. I then took a quiet deep breath, smiled, raised my right hand in greeting and said in my most cheerful, warm and upbeat tone, “Good evening fellas, how’s it going?”
They all looked surprised and looked at one another… but they kept walking and so did I. I walked steadily right through the group, smiling as genuinely as I could. About ten seconds later I heard a furious discussion breakout amongst the group. Then I heard running footsteps coming after me.
The runner was one of the youths, clearly the gang leader. He ran past me and stopped dead in front of me. He faced me and held out his left-hand palm first and stopped me in my tracks by placing that hand on my chest. He then held out his right hand, grasped my right hand, looked me in the eye, smiled and said in broken English, “You ah de furst white man to greet me on de street in South Africa. It gives me great hope for de future of my country!”
It is easy to allow fear to take root in our lives. I know there are times when I have failed to apply that lesson in my life. But there are more times when the Lord has enabled me to succeed!
And He will do the same for you.
*Photo credit: https://www.pexels.com/@artem-korsakov-132129914