When I was small, the closest I came to a body of water was when we drove across the bridge over Bull Run Creek.
My mother was terrified of water, so I was surprised when one day she agreed to go to the Norris pool with our neighbor. I was 12 years old at that time. To this day, I remember clinging on to the side of the pool with one hand while peering into to the clear water. I wanted to overcome my own fear of the water so I could learn how to swim and join my friends playing in the pool. Who wants to stay on the sidelines and watch the world go by? Not me.
There was only one thing left to do.
I pinched my nose shut with my fingers and dunked my head underwater. Actually, it was my face, but it was a start. Not only was I okay, but I enjoyed it. I did it again, except this time I placed my whole head underwater. I dunked a few more times. Each time nothing bad happened to me. By the end of that summer, I was swimming with the best of them.
You know, not all things we are afraid of should be feared. Most of the time what we imagine in our minds is worse than the actual fear itself.
Recently, I came upon another fear. A big one for me.
I was scrolling through Facebook when I noticed a post advertising the Jeanne Robertson comedy contest. I scrolled past it. Then I saw it again a couple more times.
“Hmm? What harm could it do to check it out?” So I clicked on the post and watched the video. Then I emailed the contest director with some questions and discovered I needed to submit a video to enter.
I felt as if I was peering into Norris pool again. Putting yourself out there like that is scary. But if I didn’t do it, I would in essence be staying on the sidelines again and hanging on to safety. I still didn’t want to be in that place.
There was only thing left to do.
I needed my video entry to be professionally made and I knew just the person who could do it: Aaron Russell. I have seen some of his videos and he does an amazing job. So I asked him if he would record videos of me telling my stories for the contest.
Being the nice man he is, he agreed. He is in the process of setting up a studio, so we filmed there. The day we filmed, I had spent the morning at the Maynardville Public Library for the Author’s Road Rally.
If you have never been there, you are missing out. The librarian Chantay has made it into a wondrous place. She has also some great reading programs.
As for the filming, I have to admit I was a little intimidated when I first looked into the camera lens. I had to stop and start over three times. Then I began to feel comfortable. We recorded three stories: “Three Legged Race,” “Truck Mating Calls” and “Ghosts of Big Ridge State Park.” I entered the first two into the contest.
The day came for the contest notifications for the first cut. I was more anxious about that than I thought I would be. I kept telling myself, “Chances are you won’t make the first cut.” Think about it: How many funny and talented storytellers and/or comedians had entered? There was no way I could really compete against them.
When I received the notification email, the first words I saw were “CONGRATULATIONS! You are in Round 2.”
I kid you not, I literally hopped and skipped across around the room while singing, “I made it to Round 2!” My husband peered at me over the top of his reading glasses. “I knew you would.”
After I came off of cloud nine, I thought this would be it for me in that I would not make the next cut.
Two weeks later, I kept a diligent check on my email. Again I saw this: “CONGRATULATIONS! You are in Round 3.” I didn’t skip, hop or sing with this notification. For one, I felt that I had already accomplished a lot by making the first two cuts. And I knew this next round would come down to the nitty-gritty.
Which it did. Soon I received the notification that I didn’t make it into Round 4. Was I disappointed? Not at all. The last mail said that several hundred had entered and I had done well to go as far as I did.
I didn’t enter the contest necessarily to win. I did it to step out of my comfort zone by pushing myself and seeing what I could do. You see, I want to do more than write stories—I want to tell them with a splash of humor as well. I want to use them to teach about the Lord and make a real difference in people’s lives.
Don’t let fear hold you back from doing the Lord’s work.
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” ꟷIsaiah 41:10 (KJV)
If I can look into a camera and talk about the time a stray peacock thought the sound of Tim’s truck beeping was a love song, you can do almost anything.