Though the Earth Gives Way

How does an ordinary woman live in a ghost town? It sounds so scary to me!

But it’s been fifty years since all the inhabitants departed from the village. Except for one woman who had the nerve to move into a house that she purchased in that village in the south of Italy.

I watched the documentary of this courageous woman’s true story again and again. Most people would have asked themselves, what if the earth gives way and the house collapses? The earth does give way around her sometimes, and that risk is why the previous residents left. For the last two years, she has brought someone else into that village to help her. They clean up the piles of rubble near her home as best they can.

What if something goes wrong, and this is the end for her? That’s a possibility, but it is fear speaking. And fear speaks so loudly to many people in the world today. But she has chosen faith. Faith to live there. What if she does have enough to eat? What if the earth does give way, but she stays alive? What if she gets to live a peaceful life in a lovely village where no one bothers her and she is able to enjoy tending her garden and her goats?

It’s been forty years since this woman established her life in that location. She is now in her sixties. But her example of being courageous instead of fearful, reminds me that I have the best possible reason to live by faith and not in fear – because God himself is my refuge, my strength and my ever-present help.

Dear God, can you please grant me the courage to be who I know I need to be. Help me walk by faith, in Jesus ‘name.

Throughout this day: Is there something that’s in your heart to do but you don’t have enough courage? Talk to God about it, and determine to listen to the voice of faith instead of fear.