When I was 14 years old I lived just outside West Plains, Missouri on Howell Vallely Road. Our farm was just about 3 miles off the main roadway into town, but it was definitely in the country. It was during this time I heard about being able to make money by delivering papers for the local newspaper, The Daily Quill. I went to the Quill and they hired me and I was assigned a paper route that included delivering papers to over 76 addresses. I tried to ride this route as quickly as possible to get home before dark because my ride home on my spider bike would include the three miles on Howell Valley Road. I was doing ok until the days got shorter, and darkness began to catch me just about the time I would finish my route
On the three-mile trek to my home, I crossed over two low-water bridges, They were dry most of the time, but every once in a while, we would have a heavy rain and they would be rolling along. During the dry times, I noticed a very strange sound when I would ride my bike over the first bridge. The first time I heard it I was a little startled and it caused the pace of my bike to quicken considerably, but after a while, I realized it was just a noise and I chose to ignore it.
Everything changed for me on that fateful day when I told one of my friends about my paper route and how I wished I had daylight when riding home and he proceeded to tell me "You know there is a ghost under one of those bridges don't you?" To which I replied, "Ghosts? No, I didn't know that!" I was so naive I didn't pick up on the fact that he had made that up to scare me. Guess what? It worked!
The next day I rode to the Quill to get my papers, all the while thinking about the "ghost" under that bridge. I finished my route faster than normal, but darkness caught me "again" and I headed down the road thinking all the time about that bridge I was going to have to go over. I looked ahead and devised a plan to double my pedaling pace just before the bridge and I would not stay on it long enough for the ghost to "get me." About twenty feet before I got to the bridge one of my pedals gave way (probably from the intense pressure from my fear-filled pedaling and I coasted to a stop. ON THE BRIDGE! Almost instantly, I thought I heard a deep moan coming from under the bridge and my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.
What was I going to do? My pedal was ruined and I was stuck! In fear, I proceeded to push my bike at breakneck speed off the bridge and ran it all the way to my house. Two miles! The last hill going up to my home location was steep but I never even noticed it. I had kept the ghost from "getting me." Keep in mind all of this was in my head and my imagination and my friend's words of a ghost under the bridge had propelled me to superhuman strength and stamina all for .......nothing.
The darkness, being alone, being talked into fearing something that wasn't even there had talked me into fearing a "ghost." By the way, there are no "ghosts." Duh. I had feared what should have never been feared because it was all in my head. Silly.
God's Word speaks to fear and the situations that cause fear and also calms our fears. In Isaiah 41 God speaks these words to Isaiah 10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
God says don't fear because 1. He is with us. 2. He is our God. 3. We will have His strength. 4. He will hold us up. That is enough for me, but sometimes I still let fear have its way and that has got to stop. The faith we have is a faith that does not fear, but trusts in God, and if fear is ruling then our trust in God is compromised and we "should" fear not trusting God. And that is a final word about fear....from God. He is not only worthy of our praise but worthy of our trust. Anything less is a sin. Fear should just be "Water under the bridge."
Vesselogical Out,
David Warren
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