FEAR:

~

One day, I decided to try something new. I took my ten-year-old son out on
the St. Croix River on a Waverunner. A Waverunner is a small boating vehicle
resembling a motorcycle.

We donned life jackets and embarked on an experience that turned out to be
both exhilarating and frightening: exhilarating when I let myself enjoy it;
frightening when I thought too much about what I was doing and all the
terrible things that could happen.

Midway through our ride, my worst fear came true. We took a spill. We
were floundering in thirty feet of water. The Waverunner was bobbing on
the waves in front of me, like a motorized turtle on its back.

“Don’t panic,” my son said calmly.

“What if we drown?” I objected.

“We can’t,” he said. “We have life jackets on. See! We’re floating.”

“The machine is upside down,” I said. “How are we going to turn it over?”

“Just like the man said,” my son answered. “The arrow points this way.”

With an easy gesture, we turned the machine right-side up.

“What if we can’t climb back on?” I asked.

“We can,” my son replied. “That’s what Waverunners were made for:
climbing on in the water.”

I relaxed and as we drove off, I wondered why I had become so frightened.
I thought maybe it’s because once I almost drowned when I wasn’t wearing
a life jacket.

But you didn’t drown then either, a small voice inside reassured me. You
survived.

Don’t panic.

Problems were made to be solved. Life was made to be lived. Although
sometimes we may be in over our heads – yes, we may even go under for a
few moments and gulp a few mouthfuls of water, we won’t drown. We’re
wearing – and always have been wearing – a life jacket. That support
jacket is called “God”.

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