Arachnophobics Unite

But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4 NLT)

Even the toughest guy or strongest gal occasionally faces a fear or two - they just may not want to admit it. For me, it takes but one scurrying movement from one of those eight-legged critters who come out of nowhere and are not welcome anywhere I am! Furry or plain - it makes no difference - for a spider is a spider! It brings chills to my spine and makes the hair stand on end - even as I think of one my last encounters with one. Sitting in the semi-darkness of early dawn light in a place backed right up to the woods, inside a very nice condo, typing away on my morning blog, I felt a little tickle on my neck. I flicked it away, thinking nothing more than that a mosquito or fly had managed to find their way in while we made our way inside. Then it came again, only this time there was movement a little quicker and I immediately went into flight mode! The flick and bolt movement could have made the most talented football player proud! It was honestly huge - creamy yellow body, black legs and it just kept coming in my direction. That think had been on the back of my neck! 

Barefooted, in my PJs, and no paper in sight. There I stood, contemplating my next move against this "alien" creature. The furthest thing from my mind was to trust in Jesus - I wanted a honking huge object to smash the thing to smithereens! As my BFF watched my early morning hysteria and lack of critical thinking skills when I trapped the thing under the bottom of the coffee cup thinking that would certainly smash it, I must have been a sight. As I did my tip toe impression a ballet dancer jumping high in avoidance of any further contact with this species of absolute horror, she just laughed! It wasn't that she didn't feel my pain - she just didn't understand why I chose a coffee cup because she was pretty certain all it did was capture it and not smash it! Yup - she was exactly right and it wasn't any too happy about being flicked away, trapped under a cup, and then tracked like a big game hunter was hot in pursuit!

I avoid these eight-legged creatures whenever possible - for every encounter with them just gives me chills. Behind glass in a display is one thing - out in the open where they can actually come toward me, get into spaces too small for me to get at them, or worse yet, go undetected up my back while I tap away on the keys is just not cool! There are a whole lot of things that just have a way of creeping up on us in this life and most of them are totally intent on doing us some type of harm. There isn't much good that will come of our feeble attempts to deal with these things, though, for even our best attempt using the resources we have in front of us often proves to be the silliest way to deal with the imposing threat! That spider had a way of "morphing" the body to fit the space that now entrapped it - it didn't deal with the menacing advancement of the spider for very long!

The things that menace us the most are often the things we attempt to deal with in very impractical human ways. The tactics we use may be able to stop the advancement of the issue or problem at hand for a short while, but eventually we will have to "lift the cup" and there it will be again. The issue we "trapped away" is now in flight mode and it is usually "flying" directly toward its target - US! There is but one thing to do when we are under attack, when fear is mounting, and when our enemy is revealing quite stealthy advancement - run to Jesus. Call out for help and then listen to his still small voice. In the heart-pounding moment of panic, the hardest voice to hear is that of a whisper, yet it can be the calmest and most settling voice we can hold onto in the midst of our desire to flee what we don't understand or fight against what acts as a threat to us at the moment. Just sayin!

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