A generation ago, a motto was placed on the walls of many homes. It read simply:

Fear knocked at the door

Faith answered

There was no one there.

Several year ago, a well known television circus show developed a Bengal-tiger act. Like the rest of the show, it was don "live" before a large audience. One evening, the tiger trainer went into the cage with several tigers to do a routine performance. The door was locked behind him. The spotlights highlighted the cage, the audience watched in suspense as the trainer put the tigers through their paces. In the middle of the performance, the worst possible fate befell the act: the lights went out. For 20 or 30 long seconds, the trainer was locked in the cage with the tigers. In the darkness, they could see him, but he could see them. A whip and a small kitchen chair seemed meager protection under the circumstances, but he survived – and when the lights came on, he calmly finished the performance.

In an interview afterward, he was asked how he felt knowing that the tigers could see him but he could not see them. He first admitted the chilling fear of the situation, but pointed out that the tigers did not know that he could not see them. He said: "I just kept cracking my whip and waving the chair and talking to them until the lights came on. And they never knew I could not see them as well as they could see me." (Perfect illustration for I Peter 5:8)

One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small boy into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked with a tremor in his voice, "Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?"

The mother smiled and gave him a reassuring hug. "I can't, dear," she said. "I have to sleep in Daddy's room."

A long silence was broken at last by his shaky little voice: "The big sissy."

HE TALKED TO THE UNDERTAKER M. Allison Adams R.Digest 9/99 p. 52

Although I’m not usually a nervous passenger, I once became very frightened on a small commuter plane. A storm raged, with sheets of rain and gale force winds. Our first takeoff attempt was aborted because of engine trouble. We taxied back to the hanger, changed planes and then sat on the runway awaiting takeoff clearance.

I remembered learning in psychology class that one method for decreasing stress and anxiety is to engage in conversation, so I turned to the man sitting next to me. "What do you do for a living?" I asked.

"I’m an undertaker," he replied.

MONSTERS UNDER THE BED R.Digest 2/99 p. 29

From a classified ad in an employee newsletter: "For sale – Toddler bed, white metal frame, practically new but had monsters under it, $20."

Mrs. Monroe lives in Darlington, Maryland. She's the mother of eight children. She came home one afternoon from the grocery store and walked into her home and everything looked pretty much the same, though it was a little bit quieter than usual. She looked into the middle of the living room and 5 of her darlings were sitting around in a circle, exceedingly quiet, doing something, with something in the middle of a circle. So she put down the sacks of groceries and walked over closely and looked and saw that they were playing with 5 of the cutest skunks you can imagine.

She was instantly terrified and she said, "Run children, run! Each child grabbed a skunk and ran, in 5 different directions. She was beside herself and screamed louder, more frantically, with great gusto. It so scared the children that each one squeezed his skunk! As the writer put it, "Skunks don't like to be squeezed!"

So far as is known, no bird ever tried to build more of a nest than its neighbor. No fox ever fretted because he had only one hole in the earth in which to live and hide. No squirrel ever died in anxiety lest he should not lay up enough nuts for 2 winters instead of one. And no dog ever lost sleep over the fact that he did not have enough bones buried in the ground for his declining years.

Ann Landers receives 10,000 letters a month. Observes common thread - fear of losing wealth, wealth, or the love of another.

QUOTE: "Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining nearby." Ruth E. Renkel

When Napoleon was an artillery officer at the siege of Toulon, he built a battery in such an exposed position that he was told he would never find men to man it. But Napoleon had a sure instinct for what was required. He put up a sign saying The Battery of Men without Fear. The battery was always manned.

Whenever I see people immobilized by fear as they struggle to decide upon a course of action, I remember a story I once heard a spine tingling story entitled, "The Black Door:"

Several generations ago, during one of the most turbulent of the desert wars in the Middle East, a spy was captured and sentenced to death by a general of the Persian army. The general, a man of intelligence and compassion, had adopted a strange and unusual custom in such cases. He permitted the condemned person to make a choice. The prisoner could either face the firing squad or pass through the Black Door.

As the moment of the execution drew near, the general ordered the spy to be brought before him for a short, final interview, the primary purpose of which was to receive the answer of the doomed man to the query: "What shall it be - the firing squad or the Black Door?"

This was not an easy decision and the prisoner hesitated but soon made it known that he much preferred the firing squad to the unknown horrors that might await him behind the ominous and mysterious door. Not long there after, a volley of shots in the courtyard announced that the grim sentence had been fulfilled.

The general, staring at his boots, turned to his aide and said "You see how it is with men; they will always prefer the known way to the unknown. It is characteristic of people to be afraid of the undefined. Yet I gave him his choice."

"What lies beyond the Black Door?" asked the aide.

"Freedom," replied the general, "and I've known only a few brave enough to take it."

A Yale psychologist lists six fears common to most people: Fear of failure... fear of commitment... fear of standing up for one's rights... fear of trusting others... fear of thinking or speaking publicly... fear of being alone.

Where does one get courage to face such fears? The believer gets it from God. As God said to Joshua: "Fear not. Be strong and of good courage. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you." Jesus, too, said: "Fear not."

OSCAR OVERBOARD R.Digest 9/95 p. 51

While we were crossing the pacific aboard a troop transport during the Korean War, our captain decided to stage a "man overboard" drill. Our dummy Oscar would be thrown over the side, and we'd see how quickly the dummy's position could be marked by green dye. Then the ship would maneuver into place and "rescue" Oscar.

Things didn't go as planned, After we turned the wrong way several times, we neglected to shut the engines and ran Oscar through the screws twice. A lifeboat and rescue crew were finally lowered-but the ship steamed away.

Having neglected to take a compass bearing, we could find the lifeboat again only by using radar. That drill did more to impress the troops with the finality of falling overboard than anything we could have said.

An English woman illustrated what it means to have Christ between us and danger. She said she was wakened by a very strange noise of pecking. When she went to the window, she saw a butterfly flying inside the window pane in great fright; outside a sparrow was pecking at the pane and trying to reach the butterfly. The butterfly did not see the glass pane and expected every minute to be caught; the sparrow did not see the glass and expected every minute to catch the butterfly. All the while the butterfly was safe because the glass was between it and the sparrow.

PILOT KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING R.Digest 2/91 p.117

On a flight to Washington D.C., the strong wind along the Potomac River made it difficult for the pilot to land the plane. After 2 attempts, the aircraft was circling for another try.

An older man noticed the passenger beside him had a white knuckled grip on the armrests. A frequent flier, the older man thought he would reassure his neighbor. "Don't worry," he said," those people in the cockpit know what they are doing."

"You don't understand," the man replied. "I'm a commercial pilot, and I know what they are doing!"

1ST IMPRESSION OF SKYDIVER R.Digest 4/91 p.76

For all my dread, I was unprepared for the first rush of terror. I have never been so shocked. It was a tumble straight into nothing, into infinity, into the hole in the earth; the end of the world. No words formed, no shout escaped. My whole body buzzed and dissolved. I fell, my eyes closed, and I perished. After what seemed to be a long time, I opened my eyes. Was I alive? Then, as I continued to fall, the nothingness slowly became firm, like a living pillow. The very sensation of falling disappeared as my body stopped accelerating. The are so substantial yet it was spectacularly, unnaturally clear, too clear to be so solid. It seemed like a huge cube of crystal on which I lay.

Death was past, but the dream on the other side of it was restless. The sky roared in my ears. Mother Earth was drawing me into a crushing embrace. I was strangely awake but distant, falling beyond myself like a jet outrunning its sound.

At 5000 feet - 30 seconds into the fall - I reached for the rip cord. It pulled smoothly. There was a rattle of fabric behind me. Then the chute grabbed me off the glass pillow like a hawk.

I looked up, craning my neck to see the blue and yellow lumpy canopy. It looked neat and small, a personal wing, with light shining through it. Yet it was broad, strong and intimately solicitous. it rippled in the breeze, like a small flag.

The peace, the comfort, the safety! My life had caught up with me again, and it was beautiful. I flexed my nylon wings and came back to earth in love. Michael Parfit

POWER DOES NOT CORRUPT Aung San Suu Kyi (Nobel Peace Prize Winner)

It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

WHAT DO YOU FEAR MOST? R.Digest 2/76 p. 33

During a radio talk show, several panelists were asked their response to the question: "What are you most afraid of?" The talk was brisk, full of sallies of wit and laughter. The consensus was for "annihilation by the Bomb."

At last, the mater of ceremonies, Clifton Fadiman, said to Bennett Cerf (one of the panelists) "Bennett, you haven't said a word. Are you ill?"

Bennett's voice sounded uncharacteristically small, even diffident. He said that he hesitated to answer this question truthfully because he was aware that his reply would seem trivial beside the vast matters that had been discussed. Yet the point of the program was to say what you really thought. Anyway, what he feared most was not being loved.

GOTCHA R.Digest 9/77 p.61

An amateur golfer challenged his club pro to a match. "But," said the amateur, "you've got to give me a handicap of two 'gotchas.'"

Although the pro had no idea what a "gotch" was, he was confident and agreed to the terms. Just as the pro was about to tee off, the amateur crept up, grabbed him around the waist and shouted, "Gotcha!"

They finished the game without incident, but the pro played terribly and was beaten. Asked why he had lost, he mumbled, "Have you ever played 18 holes of golf waiting for a second "gotcha?"

YOU'LL NEVER GET OUT OF HERE R.Digest 7/77 p.99

A man often walked through a cemetery on his way home. One night, though, unaware that a new grave had been dug in his path, he tumbled in. For some time he struggled to get out of the 7 foot deep grave, but finally gave up and settled down for the night.

An hour later, a farmer out possum hunting came walking through the cemetery and he too fell into the grave. He began a desperate attempt to get out, unaware that there was anyone else in the grave. The first man listened to him for a few minutes, then reached over in the pitch darkness and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You can't get out of here," he said... but he did.

NO SHARKS R.Digest 1/79 p. 133

When my friend and I went for a swim at a beach near the mouth of the Zambezi River in Mozambique, I asked a young boy, who was fishing nearby, whether there were sharks in the water. "No," he answered.

My friend and I jumped into the water and started swimming. After several minutes, I called out to the boy, "Are you sure there are no sharks here?"

"No sharks," he replied. "Sharks afraid of crocodiles."

FEAR & GRENADE THROWING R.Digest 8/69 p.89

My younger brother in Army basic training wrote: "Today we learned how to throw hand grenades. We practiced with duds at first, and my best throw, I am proud to say, was 30 yards. But with the live one I managed 43 yards. Funny what fear will do."

NAILING THE CLOSET SHUT R.Digest 8/78

At 84, my grandmother fiercely maintains her independence and lives alone in the old family home. Her 4 children live in the same town, but she rarely calls them except in emergencies. It was with some apprehension, therefore, that my uncle drove to her house one morning in answer to her phone call. When he arrived, she said she suspected that there was a burglar in her bedroom closet, since she had heard noises in there the night before.

"Why didn't you call me last night?" my uncle exclaimed.

"Well," she replied, "it was late and I hated to bother you, so I just nailed the closet shut and went to bed."

SUPERSTITION R.Digest 2/71 p. 24

Friday the 13th The most superstitious number of all is 13. Until recently, few hotels or office buildings had 13th floors; some airlines still refuse to have a Flight 13, or even a row of seats with that number.

It is not uncommon to find as many as a dozen different origins for a single superstition. The fear of the number 13 probably started with the ancient Nordic myth about Loki, who gate crashed a party of 12 other Norse gods to make 13 at the table. After the meal Loki was responsible for the mischief which caused the death of Baldur, most popular of the gods. It was Judas, too, betrayer of Jesus, who was number 13 - at the last supper, because of his late arrival. And so another origin of triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13).

The bad luck is compounded when the number 13 is coupled with a Friday, whose origin as a day of doom is often linked with Bible stories. Some old manuscripts relate that Eve ate the apple on Friday, and that she and Adam were expelled from the Garden of Eden that day. Cain is said to have slain his brother Abel on a Friday, and the great Flood is reported by some scholars to have started on the fifth day of the week. Christ's crucifixion was also on a Friday.

The story is told that the British Admiralty once tried to disprove that Friday is a bad luck day. It had the keel of a new ship laid on a Friday, named the ship Friday, launched it on a Friday, and let it sail on a Friday, with a Captain Friday in command. Ship and crew just disappeared at sea, never to be heard from again. But a review of 90 major air crashes since 1937 reveals that on 14 happened on Friday and that none of them had happened on the 13th day of any month.

Walking under a ladder. Many people won't walk under a ladder. There's the logical reason that a can of paint or a workman's tool may fall on your head. But the bad luck belief is probably that a ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle. Early Christian mystics saw the triangle as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, and hence eternity. To pass through it was an intrusion into holy space, an open defiance of sacred power that tempted the fates.

THE TEN WORST HUMAN FEARS (U.S.) From "The Book of Lists" by David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace

1. Speaking before a group

2. Heights.

3. Insects and bugs.

4. financial problems.

5. Deep water

6. Sickness

7. Death

8. Flying

9. Loneliness

10. Dogs

AFRAID OF THE ANSWER R.DIGEST 1/70 p. 158

Coming home from work one evening, I could sense something was wrong. One look at my wife's face and I was sure of it. So I said flatly, "Okay, don't tell me any bad news - just tell me the good news."

"Well," she said, "you know our seven children? Six of them did not break their arm today."

RESPECT? R.Digest 7/75, p. 142

While visiting the Oregon Caves National Monument, we hoped to get some rock samples - until we heard the following introduction from a cave tour guide: "I hope you enjoy our trek through the caves. I must ask you not to destroy or take any of the rock formations. Actually, we have had very little trouble with this. I don't know if it's because of our visitor's great love for nature, their desire for the preservation of the caves, or their respect for the $500 fine."

DON'T TOUCH! R.Digest 7/75, p. 142

On a sight-seeing trip on Florida's west coast, my husband and I visited a old mansion. In the exquisitely furnished master bedroom, we were surprised to see signs on the bedspread and curtains reading: "WASH HANDS IMMEDIATELY AFTER TOUCHING." We admired the furnishings from a safe distance, but our curiosity was aroused, so, on leaving, I decided to ask the guard if the fabric had been treated with some harmful preserving chemical.

"Oh, no, ma'am," he said, grinning. "There's nothing on 'em. We just never did have much luck with the 'Do not touch' signs."

TRUST IS THE OIL R.Digest JUNE 1973

Anxiety is human life is what is squeaking and grinding are in machinery that is not oiled. In life, trust is the oil.

I'M THE UPS DRIVER SE Leadership Conference 3/94

Man went to a Doctor's office to have him look at a mole on his chin. When he approached the nurse, she ordered "Go down the hall to the third door on your right and take your clothes off!"

"But miss, you don't understand, all I need the doctor to do is to look at this mole on my chin."

"I don't care," she countered, "I said to go down to the 3rd door on the right and take off your clothes."

This conversation continued for several minutes until, cowed, the patient meekly walked down to the hall and opened the 3rd door on the right. There huddled in the corner was a man dressed only his boxer shorts. "Man, that's one tough nurse," he said to the 2nd man.

"Tell me about it," replied the other man, "I'm the UPS driver."

CHEAP FUNERAL r.digest July 1974

On vacation last summer, I toured one of the caves in the Smokey Mountains. At one point, our guide informed us we would soon be about 400 feet beneath the surface, a fact which caused me to gasp audibly. The guide turned and smiling, reassured me: "look at it this way. If there's a cave in, you can't be buried any deeper any cheaper.

SHOULD I STOP THE CAR FIRST? R.Digest 1/95 p. 21

As an instructor in driver education at Unionville-Sebewaing Area High School in Michigan, I've learned that even the brightest students can become flustered behind the wheel. One day I had three beginners in the car, each scheduled to drive the car for 30 minutes.

When the 1st student had completed his time, I asked him to change places with one of the others. Gripping the wheel tightly and staring straight ahead, he asked in a shaky voice, "Should I stop the car?"