Facing Your Fears

What are you afraid of? I have a variety of fears. Some are more embarrassing than others, but the ones I’ll share with you are fairly common.

After only being married for a month, I became weary of brown recluse spiders. Turns out their bites can get pretty bad, and it almost put me in the hospital. Sadly the “in sickness and health” portion of the wedding vows came pretty quick.

Since I’ve moved to Colorado, I’ve also begun to enjoy time at the ski resorts. I tried skiing, and it didn’t feel like it was for me. Then I tried snowboarding, and even though I’ve fallen a lot more than skiing, snowboarding feels more natural for some reason.  This is all fun (and painful) but the scary part is the challenge of getting off of the chairlift. It’s a struggle. The last time I went, it was a 90% failure rate with a few extra embarrassing falls. The strange thing was that when I went with a friend to go snowboarding, it was more enjoyable than going alone, and a lot less scary in general. 

Now, you’d be surprised to hear that sharing my faith with people is also sometimes a scary adventure. You’d think that someone that does it for a living would be apprehensive or fearful about something so prominent in a career choice, but it happens… Then again, if you look at the disciples, up until Pentecost, they were constantly hiding. Then the day Jesus ascended into heaven, he did some amazing things and promised them something important. In Matthew 28:16-20 is says, “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority inn heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Did you catch that last sentence? Jesus didn’t say go all alone, He said “I am with you always” even until the end of time… Just like snowboarding, it’s more fun when we know we’re not alone. When we go and share God’s Word with others, we know we’re not alone. When we share about the forgiveness of sins, we’re not alone. It’s easier (not always easy) to face our fears with someone we love and trust. So go, face that fear knowing you’re not alone.

Go In Christ,

Josh Cromley

Director of NexGen Ministries