What terrifies you the most? Maybe creepy crawly spiders, ugly clowns, or drowning. But there's just something about the dark… that magnifies my anxieties, intensifies the intimidation, & deepens the once seemingly conquerable fear into an overwhelming terror.

You know the feeling? Turning off the lights to go to bed, when all of a sudden you hear a boisterous blare, only audible to you because no one else in the house heard it. "It's just the wind", trying to reassure yourself. But you know it's not just the wind. Your mind plays tricks on you. Suddenly you're trapped guessing what the sound was, and how to alleviate your worries so you can slumber restfully.

"I really can't explain my fear or why it was there. I guess I'd call it a phobia because while I realized that it was a completely irrational fear, I couldn't rid myself of it. The thought of it made me want to cry, so I just avoided it… I could feel my legs wanting to turn to Jell-O beneath me. They were shaky and unsure." When I can't figure out what's making me uneasy (which is more often than not), I fill with fear. To calm myself, because I can't figure it out and I'm being held from my rest, I remember the tune "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)". I have found the lyrics quite freeing and calming, to the point of eventual rest.

"The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love,
Amazing grace."

Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,though its waters roar and foam,though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Proverbs 18:10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Isaiah 41:10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 26:3-4 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

When our mind wanders, we think of the worst things as the outcome. Our brains fill in the gaps of what we cannot see. But why?

"We can of course interpret perceptual illusions as malfunctions indicating the typical limits of our perceptual or cognitive system—this is probably the standard perspective on the whole area of illusions. In this view, our systems are fallible, slow, malfunctioning, and imperfect. We can, however, also interpret illusory perceptions as a sign of our incredible, highly complex and efficient capabilities of transforming sensory inputs into understanding and interpreting the current situation in a very fast way in order to generate adequate and goal-leading actions in good time (see Gregory, 2009)—this view is not yet the standard one to be found in beginners' text books and typical descriptions or non-scientific papers on illusions. By taking into account how perfectly we act in most everyday situations, we can experience the high "intelligence" of the perceptual system quite easily and intuitively. We might not own the most perfect system when we aim to reproduce the very details of a scene, but we can assess the core meaning of a complex scene."

Here's the thing. The unhealthy fear comes straight from the devil. Ephesians 6:11-12 reads, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." We are facing something much greater than just an irrational fear.

But there's just something about the dark… that magnifies my anxieties, intensifies the intimidation, & deepens the once seemingly conquerable fear into an overwhelming terror.

When I trust that I'm safe and know that God watches over me while I sleep, I don't have to know anything else. I can research and research until I think I understand, but the enemy is real and seeks to make you unsettled.. by pulling you into a vulnerable place.. the darkness.

But as John 1:5 reads, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Our light, Jesus Christ, illuminates the darkness, so we needn't worry!