Moving Past Fear With Faith

One summer, a young woman, Cheryl, approached our church for some help.  She had fallen on hard times and was having trouble making ends meet.  Besides providing financial assistance, our church looked to help her in other ways as well.  One of those needs was to move out of her home she could no longer afford.  Our church leadership agreed and looked to find someone to assist.  I was a biology teacher at the time with summers off and my two sons were young and able bodied.  It didn’t take long for someone to ask us to help.  The next thing I knew, my sons and I, were on our way to help Cheryl move out.

It wasn’t a typical home.  It was off the beaten path, down an old gravel driveway which was hard to find because of all the trees and brush that grew around and over it.  I scraped the van along and made it to the end of the driveway.  There sat what looked like an old cabin rather than the house I expected.  It was kind of dark and creepy.  It was at this point one of my sons stated they heard it was haunted.  Nice, now I was beginning to wonder if helping with this move was such a good idea. 

Because of the lay out of the structure, it was easier to pass the boxes out a large window rather than walk them around through the door.  I stationed my sons inside and they would bring a box to the window to hand to me and then I would set it in the van.  It seemed a good system and time passed quickly.  I was glad, because in the back of my mind was the haunted feeling this place was kind of scary, which I would not admit to my sons who seemed none the worse for wear.  We had just about moved all the boxes.

Setting what I thought was the last of the boxes in the van, I turned back to the window expecting one of my sons to hand me another one.  No one was there.  I waited, thinking they were elsewhere in the place grabbing another box.  No one came.  I listened to see if I could hear them.  Nothing, no, wait a minute.  I heard something.  It started quietly, but there was the sound of heavy breathing.  Thinking my imagination was getting away from me, I ignored it.  The sound grew louder. 

This was really happening.

“W-who’s there?” I managed to stutter.  I waited.

An explosion of laughter erupted and my sons who had been hiding around the corner.  “We got you dad!” they yelled.

Fear.  It can get the best of us in the strangest moments.  The belief the worst is going happen even though the evidence is otherwise.  The chances some unknown heavy breathing monster was around the corner was slim to none.  Fear is one of the emotions we have been gifted and it keeps us safe.  At the same time, it can get away from us with a vivid imagination.  I acted as if there was something to be scared of because I had myself convinced that there was a reason to be fearful.

Jesus promises He is always with us (Matthew 28) and we should not be afraid (John 14).  Our faith does enable us to move past fear and have confidence and trust in Him.  And although my heavy breathing monster fear was kind of a funny, silly example, it did reveal how easy it was to move from faith to an unjustified fear quickly.  Someone once told me an acronym they used for the word “fear.”  False Evidence Appearing Real.  I’ve tried to remember that in difficult situations.

My prayer is for Malden Catholic community to continue to grow and wisdom and realize the goodness of God even when there may be a heavy breathing monster nearby.

Romans 8:28, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.