Just conquer your fears

Our friend Amy, Caleb, and I decided to go wall climbing tonight. It is a first for me and both Caleb & Amy have climbed before. The wall isn't too intimidating looking from the ground up. It actually looks fun especially with the weighted lines which ensure safe landings.

I'm terribly afraid of heights but for some reason I didn't take that into consideration when planning the evening. Caleb went and made a little bit of progress on the wall. Amy went... and then it was my turn. It started off just fine and dandy... I was even feeling good about my progress.... until I made the fatal mistake of looking down. My fear of heights suddenly took over my whole body... I started to sweat and shake from nervousness (which made holding onto a piece of plastic the size of an egg extremely difficult). I yelled down to Amy that I forgot to mention I was afraid of heights and froze. I couldn't move and started to look around me for some sort of escape. Instead I came face to face with a 5 year old climbing next to me who found my fear of heights very amusing. With a chuckle he said, "Just conquer your fears!" and proceeded to climb his way to the top of the wall. At that moment I wasn't sure if it was more appropriate to yell at the 5 year old to mind his own business or to yell at his dad below to keep his child in line. I eventually made it down and eventually stopped sweating and shaking after 15 minutes. Oh yeah... I only made it up about 4 feet. It really does look a lot scarier from up top.... top of 4 feet anyways.

I keep thinking about the young climber I met today... how he just whizzed his way through the wall over and over and over again tonight. And his very wise piece of advice for me tonight..."Just conquer your fears!" The chances of me plummeting to my death were very slim tonight... I was using a weighted cable which would provide a slow descent, the ground was covered with cushioning, and I was only 4 feet above the ground.... yet I couldn't let go of my fears and just trust that I would be ok. And here was this child with his childlike faith succeeding and conquering that wall many times over in one evening. How much am I missing out by letting my fears cripple me instead of trusting God with childlike faith?