Fear can cripple us. Are you allowing it to cripple you? One way to deal with it is to confront the fear. This is what one young woman did after being attacked. Only lessons in self defense saved Nina Funnell from being raped while having a blade held to her throat.
She could have let fear stop her from telling the police. Stop her from talking about it. Keep her hiding in her house. She chose not to, even though so far the police have not caught her attacker. Instead, she publicly came out and identified herself, as well as giving an identikit picture of the attacker to the newspaper titled’ This man attacked me but I am not afraid,’ – The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday July 2. That’s confronting her fear.
My situation is not as dramatic but the fear just as real and potentially debilitating. All my life I vowed I would not under any circumstances, fly. I had an dread of planes. Even having a plane fly overhead made me afraid. Till one day my mother wanted to take our five year old son and our only child at that time, on holiday. I was happy enough until she mentioned the dreaded word F word- flying.
At that instant I saw I had two choices- disappoint my mother and son by not letting them fly to Adelaide for the holiday. Or put my own fears aside and let him go. After prayer I let him go. Seeing that plane lift into the sky was so hard. Of course he had a wonderful time and everything was fine.
Then, many years later, when our daughter left to go over to England I was back confronting that same fear. Again only prayer and trusting in God enabled me to cope with seeing her off onto the plane. Relief flooded through me when I heard she’d arrived safely. Twice I’d dealt with the same fear but then came the last test. Was I game enough to put my fear aside and get on a plane to visit my daughter in England? I could trust God in this or not. We booked the tickets.
The news seemed filled with stories of planes that crashed. Faith stilled the fear, as I thought of all the planes that didn’t crash. Then September 11 happened. We were due to fly out two weeks later. ‘Surely you’re not still planning on flying overseas after that,’ friends said.
Yes. Nothing was going to stop this trip. Not my own fears that still murmured inside. Not terrorists. Nothing. This was crunch time.
Before and after the plane lifted into the air, I prayed and knew God’s peace. It sustained me for the whole flight and the return 21 hour flight, 4 weeks later.
Since then I’ve flown many times. I’m beginning to quite enjoy it.
If you have a fear why not ask God to help you deal with it, remembering this verse ‘For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear I will help you,’ Isaiah 41:13
Bible references from the New International Version.
Please visit these related blogs
Hope For the Hopeless – Part 1
Hope For the Hopeless – Part 2