Read, Write, Love, Repeat

Seven of us. Seven women alone at a remote lake house outside Fort Worth. We seven who had carved out time for a girls’ weekend, we seven who had journeyed together through a year of intensive Bible study and transparent life-sharing, we seven who had paused for a few chilly November days to laugh together, talk, eat, walk, and refresh at a place other than our normal day-to-day, had just finished an evening devotional and sat visiting in a window-walled living room overlooking the lake.

That’s when we heard the shots.

A few at first, then more. Too close together to be from one weapon. Continuous. Toward the lake and to the west of our temporary home.

Some of us were pretty familiar with the sound of gunfire, being Texas girls who shot guns, and were listening to see if the type and number of weapons being fired.

Some of us made the decision to turn off the lights in our brightly-lit, window-walled perch to make ourselves less of a target and/or less obvious witnesses. As the shots continued and we backed away from the windows, having looked out to see if we could see anything at all that would tell us what was going on, fear began to creep in more insistently. This was an area people wouldn’t just be doing target practice and certainly not after dark. This had to be intentional.

One of us, with the approval of the other six, called 911, just to alert the authorities of what we were hearing, just so they could come and check  it out.

One of us, a courageous transplanted Texan by nature, went upstairs to her temporary bedroom to retrieve her own firearm, loaded clip in her back pocket, just in case she had to stand at our defense.

And then one of us walked to the other side of the darkened house to a window with a different view of the lake, west-facing. And everything changed.

She saw them. The red and orange of fireworks being shot into the sky over the lake. And she called us in to see them. The real source of our rising anxiety. We called 911 back, laughing at ourselves, letting the officers know they didn’t have to come, thank you very much, we’re fine now.

The fireworks sounded like firearms because we couldn’t see them from the right perspective.

True story. Happened night before last.

But here’s the thing. The same thing has happened to me probably a million or so times in different ways.

Something comes at me and I feel as though I’m under attack, so I do one (or more) of several things:

I analyze this source of pain and try to figure out all the ways the’re wrong and point out all the types of evil thrown at me by my attacker.

I shut down and move away, not allowing anyone in because I’m busy feeling sorry for myself for being hurt by someone.

I call in backup, someone to sympathize with my plight and feel sorry for me along WITH me, and probably even get them to turn against the attacker.

I arm myself, plant myself on the defensive, ready to keep myself safe.

I do all this without a proper perspective. I do all this fueled by fear. And I do all this thinking it’s all about me.

We were fearful Friday night because we couldn’t see the source. We were fearful thinking someone was ready to harm others, and us, because we heard the sounds without seeing the beauty.

When we saw the fireworks, it became clear that none of what we feared was founded on fact. Someone who had no idea we were there (or that we exist in the world, for that matter) was putting on a firework show that had nothing to do with us, was not meant to scare or injure us and, had we the proper perspective, the right view, would have been a magical moment in our weekend away instead of a source of anxiety and fear for seven very rational and sane women. Who are still laughing at this, by the way.

So much of the time, our defense mechanisms don’t take into account the actual motivation of an action that causes us pain. We have to move to a different perspective and see from another angle. We need to look at HOW we are seeing something, not just what we are perceiving.

Take a moment, pray and ask God for the right view, cause yourself to pause, before going on the defensive.

Sometimes it’s just fireworks, not firearms.