arachibutyrophobia.

August 24, 2009. It was a beautiful day in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The rising sun tinged the condos along the coast a fetching shade of electric pink, and glittered brilliant white across the water, which was unusually clear--especially since a storm had just rolled through the day before. The sky was that perfect shade of blue that just evokes happiness. There were fluffy white (harmless) clouds low on the horizon. The sand was cold and damp beneath my feet. Sam was standing next to me, and we were chatting animatedly about how excited we were.

We were gonna get baptized today. In the Gulf of Mexico. With the fish, and the dolphins, and the mermaids, and the little clumps of seaweed, and the fish poop, and the jellyfish. With the oysters and their pearls, and the sparkling shards of shell that glittered just beneath the sand. We briefly entertained the idea of sharks, but those fears were put to rest when we saw some dolphins swimming along fairly close to the beach. If there were sharks, Flipper would save us.

But yeah, the ocean. I was pumped. Maybe I read too far into it, but I saw something very significant about the salt of the earth being baptized in salt.

And then we spotted them. The stingrays, I mean. There were flapping about lazily a few yards from where we were standing.

We looked at each other.

We looked at the stingrays.

And then we looked at each other again.

"I'm not getting in that water," we said in almost perfect unison.

And as we planned a raincheck on the baptism without a second thought, the stingrays continued flopping around without a care. I imagined them feeling pretty pleased with themselves. I think I might have addressed them directly to express my distaste.

The funny thing was, as we prepared to approach the college minister about rescheduling the baptism, I wasn't really that upset. I really didn't want to go into that water.

I was scared. Stingrays killed Steve Irwin; I had every right to be scared.

But you know, it amazes me that fear has that kind of power over us. Baptism is a public symbol of your commitment to Christ, and me and Sam had this amazing opportunity to get baptized in the ocean! That's not something a lot of folks get to do.

We were willing to throw it all away, because we were scared. On the day we were declaring our dedication to follow God, we were too afraid to follow Him into stingray-infested waters. Tell me... what power do two tiny little stingrays have over the Creator and Savior of the entire universe?

We're gonna play a little game. I found a couple of great Bible verses, and I'm gonna customize them to suit my situation a little better. If you're dealin with fear, you should try it. It's super hokey, but it works. It puts me at ease (and with a ridiculous situation like stingray woes, it's good for a laugh too).

Fear of man stingrays will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.
--Proverbs 29:25

He [Jesus] replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the waves stingrays, and it was completely calm.
--Matthew 8:26

We stayed on the beach for a few more minutes, anxiously watching the stingrays and hoping they'd wander back into deeper waters where we couldn't see them. Then we'd be all good. Out of sight, out of mind, after all. Slowly people trickled down to the shore to check them out (I bet the darn stingrays were lovin this attention), and after a few minutes almost all 100-something of us Temple Tech beach retreat kids were clumped on the shore, staring at the stingrays and wondering what was gonna happen next. People were snapping pictures of them left and right.

Then one brave soul (I'm not really sure who it was) sauntered into the water. He got right up close to the stingrays (to the sound of audible gasps from his audience), knelt down, and plucked them out of the water with an amused expression on his face.

Cardboard.

The "stingrays" were two squares of cardboard that had been soaking in the water all night, which leant them their flippy stingray look.

I laughed and felt like a total moron for a while.

Me, Sam, and Lynnzie got baptized that morning. It was a beautiful day to get baptized, and to get hugs from warm, dry friends who watched us get dunked, and to be immersed in the Holy Spirit.

But the stingrays didn't leave my mind. I thought about them all the way home. It was funny, yeah... but it make me realize that I'm such a coward. I was afraid of some cardboard. I was going to let some cardboard stop me from professing my faith to everybody on that beach. God was teaching me something that morning.

Fear is crippling. It will paralyze you, shock you, kill you. It'll keep you standing still. It'll keep you on the shore when God is waiting in the water.

The thing is... that thing you're scared of? It's not what it looks like. Compared to the might and power of our Almighty God, it's just some cardboard flopping around in the water.

--SaVanna

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
--John 14:27