Confronting Fear

Last week I helped some of the members of my quilting group prime and paint the rental house of one of our members. Yes, I know it was crazy, but it wasn't my idea. One couple felt strongly about doing this for her since “we” meaning Christians "go half way around the world to help others and sometimes forget there are those nearby who need our help." The one needing the help is a visually impaired woman in our group who lives in a charming but older home in the historic part of town. The windows were all replaced this year but now the house needed a fresh coat of paint over the old siding.

So about six of us showed up to help, bringing a couple small step ladders and (initially) only one extension ladder. Bob immediately volunteered to use the long handled paint roller and got busy. Someone then asked, “who’s not afraid of heights?” Well it turns out that everyone else (including me) was afraid of heights and didn't want to climb the ladder to paint the siding under the gutters and above the windows and at the peak of the roof line. So a process of elimination ensued, I am younger that most of the others, taller, and I brought the extension ladder so was familiar with it .Before you know it, I was offering to head up the ladder. I was scared out of my wits and the wind was blowing!

Fear is a powerful emotion that can kind of paralyze you whether it be physical fear as in "I could fall off this ladder and get killed" or psychological fear as in "I don’t know if I I can do this I might make a fool of myself" in public speaking or something. Fear can be irrational too. The ladder is strong and secure but you still do not feel safe ten or twelve feet off the ground and you won’t die from speaking in public but you truly feel as though you might.

At first the spatial area that I was comfortable extending my arm up into and out from the ladder in was pretty restricted. Gradually I reached out farther and higher and eventually resorted to using my left hand at times to stretch for places that couldn’t be reached otherwise. I hated every minute of it and prayed a lot, but I did overcome my fear enough to finish going around the three sides of the house twice on two days of painting. Another lady joined me on another borrowed ladder and did the front of the house but never could do it without someone always holding the ladder for her. There was a place in the back of the house where a lower roof meets up with the main roof. The only way to paint it was to climb up the ladder get off onto the sloped roof and hand paint while desperately clinging onto some shingles. The scariest part was getting back onto the ladder from the roof, I had to have someone hold the bottom of the ladder then. Also when I did the peak as I had to step up one rung higher than I wanted to go to reach it.

With God’s help we are able to get out of our comfort zone and do things we didn’t think we could do. It is good  for us to stretch sometimes and have to trust God to get us through it. I am not saying I ever want to become a professional house painter though!

It is OK to do hard things with Jesus helping us. Not that He will always rescue us from every situation but His presence will be with us. We are not to be people paralyzed by fear in this world.

Mathew 8:26
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 

Lou