SHE goes higher

Acrophobia. The extreme and irrational fear of heights.

Since I was a little girl, I hated heights. Roller Coasters, walking bridges, those tourist elevators that allow you to see the whole city as you are pulled into the sky. Every single one of those experiences were typically X’d immediately off my list.

However the one place I felt comfortable was in my Dad’s arms. Standing at 5”11, my Dad clearly towered over my small, 7 year old lanky body right before he lifted me up. See I was not tall enough to see the activities going on beyond the fence that encompassed whatever County Fair event was going on. So without even asking, he knew that he had to lift me up higher off the ground in order to see what he could easily see.

As my arms wrapped around his neck, I took a momentary look at the 3 feet of space that separated me from the ground. I didn’t flinch. I don’t even think I meditated on my change in position. Why did this new height not bother me?

Now you may be thinking...of course that height is nothing compared to a roller coaster or suspension bridge, but in life when something scares you it doesn’t take much to avoid it. Maybe it’s the fear of missing out or that you will fail. Either way, I think most of us are engineered to automatically reject whatever scares us the most. To reason that it wouldn’t work out anyway, so there’s no use in wasting time trying.

Although I was too young and nowhere near as introspective to realize how my fear evaporated in the arms of my Dad, I knew the new height was meaningless because I trusted my Dad. In the short 7 years of my life, I had built up trust that came through relationship. Provision of food. Done. Clothes on my back. Done. His presence in my daily life. Done. The list goes on. The point is, still up until today, my Earthly father has proven that he has my back and that I can trust him.

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

-Matthew 6:26-27

So how much more can I trust my Heavenly Father with?

God knows exactly what we need. He has everything taken care of, and all He wants us to do is to take rest in His arms so we can in turn see things from His elevated position in due time.

Over the last two decades, I’ve tackled my acrophobia by riding a couple of roller coasters, ziplining through trees, and walking on glass floors 1,353 feet above the ground in Chicago. I haven’t completely conquered my fear of heights, but when I learn to approach my fears with faith that the end result will be good, I’m a little less scared to be lifted off the ground.

In what ways have you trusted God to provide?

In what areas of your life can you give God to take control of?