A ghastly thought came to me today …. what if I never cared about what went on in a court procedure? What if I harbored fear or anger towards the defendants, the idea of murder or bloodshed? What if I never went to court or started a blog? What if I never walked that mile for Marc to make sure he was in good hands with the legal system, detectives up in Portland? What if I cowered in fear, never talked about the case but relied on others to take over my concern for my son? 
What a mess my life would be, I would be a prisoner myself even more than the defendant, Andrew! In the beginning I refused to give my life over to the power of fear, hate! I’m a ‘need to know’ type person, & I knew I couldn’t hide from my responsibility to Marc, it would have flat out crippled me!
If I just let things progress without standing up for my son, no one would probably have known how great Marc was! I would have been so obsessed with this or that failure of mine or some aspect of the crime and not been able to start a blog. If I had just caved into fear no one would know that Portland is really a beautiful and safe place to live. My readers would not know that the courts and police there are some of the best.
When Jesus says, ‘Fear not’, he really wants us to think that way in every circumstance we go thru in life! He doesn’t just say ‘nice’ things, He knows we’re beset with some horrendous challenges sometimes, and we need a word of hope to stay strong for the duration!