Conquering Fear

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the McDonald’s play place, but I haven’t been familiar with it myself since I was really little. But when you have a 2 ½ year old nephew that is a picky eater and loves nothing more than a trip to McDonalds with his aunt- you familiarize yourself with it again pretty quickly. And to be frank, it’s not my favorite place in the whole world. The McDonald’s play place is full of snotty nosed elementary student bully’s that use that play ground as a way to show their dominance in the world over poor little toddlers like my nephew. The first time I took my nephew there he was playing innocently when out of the corner of my eye I see this towering child maybe 10 years old barreling forward towards my nephew with 2 hands out. Before I could grab him away, she had pushed him full force into the ground leaving him dazed and confused. I scooped him up quickly and ran him out of that play place!

The following week, Anth asked me to take him back to the play place for another aunty-nephew date and reluctantly I said yes hoping the towering kids stayed home that day. We walked in and we were the only ones there, but I could tell right away he still had a healthy fear of this play place and going through the dark tunnels to get to the top. I encouraged him but he didn’t want to be pushed, so I let it go. A few minutes later a little boy a few years older than Anth and his grandma walked in. Right away he walked past my nephew and started climbing in the tunnels. About half way up, he turned around came back down and gently invited Anthony to climb with him. Anthony looked back at me for an encouraging nod and then he slowly climbed in. Before you know it, he was at the top and laughing as he came down the slide. I was so so proud of him for facing his fear, and getting to the top. He came down the slide just long enough to push away my hug and run to climb again.

I realized a few significant things that day watching my nephew conquer fears. Fear loses its grip on us, when others see our potential and offer to walk past it with us. A hand held out from a new friend was all Anthony needed to enter into something unknown and daunting.

Change cannot be forced or pushed, but comes with gentleness and a safe place to take risks. The environment in which Anth conquered his fears came when only a few people he could trust were around and willing to take each step with him. I’m sure next time he will have little or no reservations running into that play place no matter how many kids are around.

Fear. It’s a word every human being on the planet is familiar with. We all have places of fear in our lives. Maybe you’ve been hurt, abused, torn down, told you can’t and it has left your potential frozen by fear. I’m here to say don’t let that fear hold you down any longer, grab a friend, ask a stranger- take someone with you in the journey who is gentle and can see past the fear that seems to have a hold on you. It is so worth it to stand on the other side of fear and see all you are capable of. There have been people and places where God has allowed me to step out of fear from my past and into something really beautiful on the other side. Maybe you have already stepped over the line of fear, and you need to be a safe place to reach out your hand for someone else to do the same. I’m so honored to be able to walk through life here in Cambodia with the hurting and broken because I was there too at different points in my life crippled by fear of walking through the pain. I love giving away what God has so graciously given me and seeing others come alive when they know someone will not only call out their potential but walk through the mess to get there with them. Walk out of fear. Be the invitation for others to do the same, you just might see chains of fear broken today.