By Mike Glenn<\/b><\/p>\n
When I was a little boy, I thought alligators lived under my bed. Yes, I looked under my bed. I looked at night (when I could work up the courage), and I looked under my bed during the day (when I was much braver). I could never see any alligators, but anybody who knows anything about alligators knows they are masters of camouflage. Just because you can\u2019t see them doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not there.<\/p>\n
For that reason, I never let my hands hang off the side of the bed. If my hands were dangling off the bed, I thought, the alligators would grab my arm and pull me under the bed. This was a serious concern when I was kid, but as long as I kept my hands on top of the bed, I was fine. I was safe on top of the bed.<\/p>\n
Everyone knows alligators can\u2019t climb on the bed.<\/p>\n
To this day, I can\u2019t let my hands hang off the side of the bed.<\/p>\n
I know, you think this is silly and I should grow out of this childhood fear. I don\u2019t know if I can do that. After all, I still have both of my hands!<\/p>\n
A lot of us have childhood fears that we\u2019ve outgrown. There were monsters in the closets or dragons in the basement \u2013 there was some kind of creature that symbolized everything we were afraid of in the world. The world is a big place, and we\u2019re really little kids. As far as we were concerned, the whole world was filled with big, scary, monsters.<\/p>\n
And we outgrow our childhood fears. In fact, we are so confident of our abilities we insist on living without any fears of all. We want to scale high mountains, jump out of airplanes, push ourselves to our physical limits. We wear t-shirts in the gym that scream \u201cNo fear!\u201d Don\u2019t let your fear hold you back, the motivational speakers tell us. Face your fear, we\u2019re told, and you can conquer every obstacle.<\/p>\n
We can do it all and more than we ever dreamed if we don\u2019t let our fear hold us back.<\/p>\n
Now, before we get too far down the \u201cNo Fear\u201d road, let\u2019s remember fear is a perfectly good emotion.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s necessary for our survival as a species. Fear keeps us from slapping bears and running in traffic. Fear keeps us out of a lot of situations that are dangerous and harmful. There are things in our world we need to be afraid of. Without that fear, we would never survive as people or as a species.<\/p>\n
Like anything else, however, fear can become unbalanced and lead to life-crippling phobias.<\/p>\n
Or worse, we can become fixated on being afraid of the wrong things. A lot of us are afraid of dying in a terrorist attack. Yet, we are a lot more likely to die of a heart attack than a terrorist attack. We will put up with all kinds of inconveniences in our lives if we think we\u2019re being protected from terrorists getting on the plane with us.<\/p>\n
Yet, we won\u2019t think twice about eating a triple decker cheeseburger with fries.<\/p>\n
As I have gotten older, I find out I\u2019m still afraid, but I\u2019ve changed my mind about the things I\u2019m afraid of. I don\u2019t fear alligators under my bed anymore. I fear missing a moment with my wife. I\u2019m afraid I\u2019ll miss a moment with my sons and grandchildren. I worry about the time I have with my friends. I worry about missing an adventure that would have allowed me to see the secret of the universe and missing it all because I thought I should show up for one more meeting about nothing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m afraid of living for nothing. I\u2019m afraid when everything is said and done, nothing I\u2019ve said and nothing I\u2019ve done will have mattered.<\/p>\n
But this time, my fear doesn\u2019t paralyze me, it energizes me. I\u2019m 62 years old. I have lived most of my life. Whenever I read the paper and notice the obituaries, I\u2019m stunned by how many people my age and younger<\/strong> have died! Tomorrow is never guaranteed.<\/p>\n So, I know this. I know I\u2019m going to die, and instead of being frozen in fear, I\u2019m motivated to do those things \u2013 and only those things\u2014that matter.<\/p>\n I may be a little later going into the office because I\u2019m enjoying coffee with my wife.<\/p>\n I may get up and step outside of a meeting if one of my sons calls.<\/p>\n I may linger in my Bible study and not be in such a rush during my prayers.<\/p>\n I\u2019m old enough to know what matters. I\u2019m old enough to know I don\u2019t have forever. Funny, but the fear in me keeps me focused.<\/p>\n After all, you learn to get up fast in the morning if you think there are alligators under the bed.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mike Glenn When I was a little boy, I thought alligators lived under my bed. Yes, I looked under my bed. I looked at night (when I could work up the courage), and I looked under my bed during the day (when I was much braver). I could never see any alligators, but anybody […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n