Fear In Tight Spaces

I was walking through the cavern and I could not believe what happened next.  As I said in my post, Courage For 2018, I am sharing my vulnerable journey towards courage in this series of posts.  My son was turning 13 and I had taken him to Glenwood Springs, Colorado for a kick off to his journey into manhood.  He had little information of what the weekend had in store.  A big part of the weekend was taking a spelunking trip into Glenwood Caverns.  It just so happened that we were the only two signed up for this trip.  That meant it was our guide, our guide’s friend, and us.

We started walking through the cavern just like the other tourists, except we were wearing cool mining helmets with lights and coveralls.  Suddenly and without warning, our guide dives into a small hole in the wall.  This thing is so small that you would likely not notice it and walk by.  My son is next.  He goes in without a second thought.  I am standing there with our guide’s friend and she is says, “You’re up!”  There is only one problem.  I struggle with claustrophobia (the fear of tight spaces and confinement).   You are probably wondering why I picked spelunking if I knew I had this fear.   You see, part of bringing into manhood is let them see what a real man looks like.  The trip in to the cave was not just about my son having an opportunity to face a potentially scary situation, but to also see his dad face fear.

We live in a dangerous world.  We are going to face things that make us afraid.  When we face these things we only have two options.  We can shut down and do nothing or we can persevere regardless of our fear.  Both could result in us getting wounded.  However, only one has the potential of success and victory.

 

I crawled into the hole.  We had a great time.  There were some scary moments, but we did it together.  We both came out dirty and more courageous. 

In the next post I am going to share with you my biggest fear.  It very well could be yours too.  In the meantime, what are you afraid of?  What do you do to face these fears? 

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