No Fear

Grand Canyon Skywalk
Originally uploaded by Michael McDonough

For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.
2 Timothy 1:7

This morning I received instalment 2 of my brother's holiday blog from the US, describing his visit to the Grand Canyon;

We stepped out onto the Skyway which is a glass walkway which sticks out 70 feet over the canyon's edge and had our picture taken (another $30). Even Mrs K was persuaded to let go of the handrail and lie down on the glass with us, risking a 2500 drop to the Colorado river. There was a section of broken glass just to add a bit of doubt to our English sense of faith in US safety standard. Four rather overweight tourists decided to test the claim of 10,000lb strength by all jumping up and down on one pane of glass at the same time. The guides seems unperturbed but did say that the glass was due to be replaced. We decided not to take that particular challenge to a new level. Seriously though the views were stunning and we will definitely go to visit the South rim next week.

This verse from 2 Timothy had been running around my head for the last few days and it got me thinking about the nature of faith and obedience. Sometimes (maybe oftentimes!) we are asked by the Holy Spirit to do a challenging thing or to quietly trust in a difficult situation. If we are human we are likely to feel fearful, anxious, panicked. But the truth is that we can walk without fear if we choose to trust in Him. It might be an unnerving thing to walk out on to a glass walkway when all you can see is down, but is it reasonable to be afraid when that glass has been expertly manufactured and 100's of 1000's of people have gone before you and lived to tell the tale? Probably not. For me, that is what my faith is; a reasonable tried and tested trust in a God who has spoken truth to me in Jesus, the Bible and the clouds of saints who have gone before me. So far He has not let me down.