Facing your fears....even Camel Back Crickets!!!

Laird Hamilton wrote, “Do not be afraid of death. Be afraid of the half-lived life.” This is so true for the Christian life. Yet, we seem to live in non action because of fear. Have you ever been in a situation that never seems to change? You pray about it and there is only silence...nothing. Phobia's and doubts kill life.

I have a major phobia of Camel Back Crickets or Japanese Crickets. I had just moved from California, I was single, and young. I was lying on the coach one late evening with only the TV on the this huge bug crawled out over the carpet...

Yes, it was a camel back cricket. Now I usually don't get too excited about bugs or snakes or rodents. California is a fairly dry climate and these crickets cannot survive in that climate. I stood up and turned on a light and you guessed it...the thing jumped at me and I jumped back and it was gone...the rest of the night I never found the cricket...I was mortified. The night stood still and very silent!

I did some investigating the next day and one of our church elders said, “Oh yeah, we have those everywhere and they are perfectly harmless.” I did not care...it and all its friends had to go and I treated the perimeter of the apartment that day!

Well a few years later after Karen and I were married, we took a position at the Gethsemane Church of Christ. It is a beautiful big building with the Sanctuary on top of an English Basement. 10 Large Sunday School Classrooms and the restrooms were located in the Basement. Well...the basement of the church was invested with Camel Back Crickets. I took action and It was war...I was not going to let the crickets get the best of me. So, I became very good at tossing hymnals...I would toss a hymnal (these are big books) and often it would not kill one of these creatures. I have seen hymnals bounce with a cricket underneath it. To this day, there are hymnals at the Gethsemane Church of Christ with dead bug stains on the back of the cover from my tossing hymnals at Camel Back Crickets.

But, you know what? They don't bother me nearly as much as they used to. With good treatment of pesticides and my facing the crickets in the basement wars, I got to know my fear and learned to see it for what it was, just a fear. Don't get me wrong, I still cringe at the sight of one of those pests, but it is not as paralyzing as it once was.

You see, when we act on our fear, we demonstrate the quality of acting against fear, God is able to work and building within us the strength and courage to address the fear. Zachariah and Elizabeth were faithful to their calling and addressed their fear and disappointment by remaining faithful to God's righteousness. 

Facing ours fears...grants us strength. You know I love ya, Don