You get a picture of this because I wasn't pausing to photograph the bug.

You get a picture of this because I wasn’t pausing to photograph the bug.

How are you about bugs? Can you handle them or do they freak you out? I am a little better now that I’m older. I can handle them if they’re small. But when they’re big ones, I turn into a three year old little girl and start to freak and run around screaming.

Have you ever seen a water bug up close? They are huge, like the size of a baseball or something [not really, more like a half dollar]. I walked into my office a couple of days ago and saw the biggest water bug I’ve ever seen on the ceiling right above my desk chair. I was the only one in the office, the entire building for that matter, so I was left with two choices:

  1. I could ignore it and leave it there.

  2. I could kill it.

I knew I couldn’t coexist with that monster in my office. He had to die. It was up to me.

Did I happen to mention that water bugs have big wings and can fly? I had to be focused and committed to killing it or it could fly and land who knows where IN MY OFFICE, including the top my head.

I grabbed the fly swatter, my weapon of choice, and looked up trying to get a plan. Not only did I have to smack it to kill it, but I had to trap it with the fly swatter so it wouldn’t fall. I may or may not have been screaming at the top of my lungs which wasn’t wise because that meant my mouth was open providing an opening where the bug could land.

After a minor panic attack, the bug was dead, removed, and flushed. In the grand scheme of things it seemed much harder than it actually was.

Fear comes in all shapes and sizes; sometimes it’s rational fear and sometimes it’s just plain crazy. 2 Timothy 1:7 says,

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

When faced with fear, we need to turn to the Lord and ask for His power, His love, and His self control. Then and only then will we begin to see things rationally and stop fearing things like a bug that we are a gazillion times bigger than, for example, and allowing it to have control over us.

You may not always have a fly swatter with you, but the Lord will be with you wherever you go and He can give you the strength and courage to face your fears [Joshua 1:9]. Turn to Him.