What is FEAR to you?

What is fear to you? I get scared very easily, but I am not sure that is "fear." Is it fear when you answer the phone to hear one of your daughters say, "Mom, help us!" followed by gun shots and then complete silence. You bet that's fear. Is it fear when four teenagers are forced into a collision by four gun-wielding strangers who shoot your car? Is it fear when you try to get away but back into a ditch and hit a tree? You bet that it is fear. Is it fear when the two boys take off running and leave the two girls with the assailants? Is it fear when you finally think it's over only to find out that the strangers' vehicle won't start and they come back after you? Unimaginable fear. I really don't know who experienced more fear that night: the teenage girl who was pulled from the car with a gun placed against her head while she waited on her friend to get the car out of the ditch of the friend who knew that her friend's life depended on her getting that stuck car out of the ditch. Or the innocent good samaritan who stopped and tried to help only to find himself the victim of an attempted murder when a bullet whizzed through the windshield of his truck missing him by only inches. Or the parents who must have felt that an eternity had passed before they found out their children were safe. Or the parents of the second boy who could not be found for two hours, the boy whose blood they were looking for because they thought he had been shot, who had run so hard and so far that he collapsed and tracking dogs were used to find him.

This is a true story. It happened Friday night in the small town about 12 miles from here where we used to live. On the end of the road that it happened, houses are few and far between. These teens were followed from a nearby gas station and robbed, and eventually car jacked. It was several more miles before the girls could find someone to let them use the phone to call their parents. It turned out that the boys ran to get help. But I think maybe they ran because they thought the girls would follow. Or maybe they ran as part of God's plan. I know you are thinking that none of this could have been God's plan. But I think if those boys had stayed around, it could have gotten even more violent and one of them may not be alive now. One of the boys has suffered a major head injury which was aggravated recently by a fight at school. He has only been out of the hospital a few months now. I know three of the four teens involved and their parents. This is more than fear--it is a nightmare. It turns out that the truck which the assailants left behind was reported stolen shortly afterward and they found the carjacked vehicle later abandoned. So it looks like these strangers will get away with their crime.