Fear. It is limiting. It keeps you bound to living small. It is something God never intended. We recently introduced our boys to the movie, “The Truman Show.” Sitting here typing this article on fear, God brought that movie to my mind. In the movie, Truman is conditioned to not go beyond certain places by a very strategic amount of fear. His life is the plot of the movie. The audience watches him live while he is completely unaware. He is taught from a young age to be afraid of the water to keep him from leaving. He has this deep desire to explore, but the writers of the show literally work night and day to present the most negative ‘what if’ situations. It really is an interesting movie when you stop to think about it. I would not assume the writer meant for viewers to walk away with a deep understanding of fear, but the message is there.
With that in mind, God has a very real way of teaching me about my own fears. Our family has a fun tradition each year. We have extended family that moved to the Blue Ridge mountains several years ago, so we take an annual trip to visit them. Since starting this tradition, my brother and his family and sometimes my dad and step mom will also meet us there. Over the years, I have learned the difficulty of reserving a cabin in such a mountainous region. The majority of rental properties are so remote, they don’t even have an actual address so to speak. They are not located in places that can be found by accessing google. GPS stops long before you reach these destinations. That being said, it is a bit of a risk to plan for where you will stay.
The first year we made the trip, I had no idea of what I was getting my city based family into. I paid online and was told that I would be sent specific directions to the office to retrieve the key and there I would receive even more specific directions to the cabin. Not knowing much about the area, we took our time in planning our trip to arrive at our cabin. This is something we have since changed. We had no idea the importance of having sunlight when looking for a house built off the side of a mountain, down gravel roads that are only slightly wide enough for one vehicle. So lets talk about that fear that I mentioned. It is paralyzing. Because I get car sick in such crazy conditions, I often am the one behind the wheel. It is an interesting position to be in because I am also the most fearful in the car and I am the one operating it. Our trips are planned in the fall, so adding to the tricky driving conditions is the fact that the leaves are falling from the trees, covering the road and every other inch of the mountain, hence making the road that much harder to spot. There is not a lot of room for error when you are driving up the side of the mountain. As I mentioned, our first year included a search for our hidden cabin in complete darkness. Several times we reached spots where I would stop the vehicle in complete fear and Kam would get out and walk ahead to make sure what looked like an exit off the side of the mountain was actually just another steep spot on the road. As the amazing city slickers that we are, we would light the road ahead with a cell phone. That’s right. We didn’t even have a flashlight. I would love to say that we have improved in that area, but I have to report that we went this year yet again without a real flashlight. Maybe next year.
On one of Kam’s brave walks out in front of the vehicle, we all almost wet ourselves because of the sound of something rustling in the bushes. Yep. We were not alone. Oh yea, and we are in bear country. It is against the law to not lock up your trash out in those mountains. That is always reassuring. They are serious about not feeding the bears.
When we finally made it to our cabin, we all finally exhaled. Seriously. We were thankful to see the cabin was as nice as the pictures on the website had portrayed. That being said, I understood why the price was so reasonable. You were risking your life to get there. The next morning when we all got up, we were again breathless. Not because fear had overtaken us, but because the views from the house were amazing. The house was three stories with balconies off of each story. We could see mountains as a panoramic view with trees perfectly placed. It was as if an artist had painted from the perspective of their imagination. It just did not seem real.
Years have passed and we have stayed in a few different cabins. We did accidentally stay in one of them twice. It is a long story and only something I could do. Seriously.
This year I went looking online for yet another cabin. I had heard all kinds of great reviews from people who use AirBNB so I thought I would try going that route. I began the search of putting in my criteria and looking through hundreds of pictures. I got to one specific house and was drawn to the fact that it looked like it was built on flat ground. What???? I sent the ad to my family and they all said, “Sure. Book it.” And that was that. No more fear.
As we met up to make the trek this year to our new cabin we braced ourselves. You see, the week before we were to go I received an email from the owner that said, “Lots of renters do not feel comfortable because of the incline of the drive so you can park at the top and walk,” What??? No. I did my homework. I saw the pictures. It was flat. Well, needless to say, there was a flat portion at the bottom and the picture was taken from the farthest spot of the flat, paved area. As we followed our GPS, the first thing we noticed was that our GPS was actually working. Okay. This is new. We turned into a neighborhood and my sister-in-law and I were doing a bit of a victory dance. We knew we were close and this was not scary at all. Oh but of course, as we were just half a mile from our destination we reached a sign that said, “Paved road ends.” Well of course it does! We were pleasantly surprised to see that while the final part of the drive was steep, it was not too far beyond the sign.
We ventured down the scary drive to our new home for the next few days. The cabin was beautiful, but I did notice something. While the view of the creek and the woods was peaceful, we did not have a view of the mountains. We had not ventured far enough up and away to look out at the mountains. It was then that I realized something about life. The most beautiful views are just beyond our fears.
Read the entire chapter of Psalm 23. In the middle of the chapter, the writer says he has to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That same sentence starts with the two words, “even though,” The complete sentence says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” The end of the chapter is where he is seated with his enemies, his head is anointed with oil, his cup overflows, goodness and mercy follow him and he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. All of the good stuff came, after he ventured beyond his fears.