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A Missionary Memory from July 20, 2021

After my cataract surgeries in the summer of 2021, I needed to stay in the States for at least three weeks till they had completely healed. This also allowed for check-ups following the surgeries.

I spent that time visiting with family and friends….

Then one day spent it riding roller coasters.

My brother and his family took me to a local amusement park. Before going there my niece made me promise to ride every single roller coaster with her. And I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE!

Now I don’t have a serious problem with roller coasters.

But a few of them made me a little nervous!

One in particular took you into a dark tunnel and then at a certain point there was a free-fall. Not knowing where the free-fall was worried me. So I did ride it with her, but my eyes were closed very tightly!

As we entered the tunnel my heart was beating out of my chest.

Then they dropped us

and it wasn’t that bad!

We ended up riding that roller coaster again. And this time, my eyes were WIDE OPEN!

I learned that day often our anxiety about an experience can be worse than the experience itself. Our mind thinks of the worst-case-scenario or focuses too much on the thing we are anxious about. Like me we go through the experience with eyes tightly shut because we are so scared, and cannot enjoy it.

Often after going through that experience we feared so much our response would be “thats it?”.

We cannot let the anxiety of life cause us to shut our eyes

We must get on with our eyes open (even if our heart is beating very fast) and enjoy the ride