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September 29, 2022

Facing Your Fears

By Barry Rudesill

Good morning! (Or afternoon, evening, day, etc.) Today, I need to talk about something that’s been bothering me for quite some time.

If you’ve read these blogs for about a year, then you know that Maria and I have been redoing our house. Since she’s the Director of a nonprofit organization and I’m a traveling Pastor, there haven’t been a lot of funds available. So, instead of hiring someone else to do it, we’ve been the ones working on our house!

The projects, to date, have included new insulation for the walls, house wrap (our house never had any), new windows, and a new patio door. But it’s not those that bother me; it’s the work that’s ahead of us that I’m most concerned about: soffit and fascia.

Why am I afraid of those two? Is it because I don’t know what I’m doing? Well, partially that… But, if I’m being real here, I was once an electrician and a roofer, but I’ve never done ANY of the repairs that we’ve already accomplished.

So how did we do those other projects? Simple! We asked for help from people much more knowledgeable than us! My father came over to teach us how to start and to bring us some specialized tools to make the work easier; Dale, the Program Maintenance Director from Maria’s camp, taught us and helped us; we’ve had some volunteers assist with the “big” projects like the patio door; and more.

At no point do I think I felt totally overwhelmed by the task in front of me...until now!

You see, before I can do the soffit, I need to check the ventilation in our attic. To check the ventilation in our attic, I need to climb up in there. And to do that, I need to run the risk of encountering the rather-large spiders that I’ve seen around our house this year! And I don’t like spiders...at all!

[Read with a low, gravelly voice.] In an enclosed space, with no room to stand – let alone run! – no one can hear you scream! (Sorry, I felt this needed an overly-dramatic, movie-style tagline here!)

So now I have two choices. First, I can climb up there, crawl through an attic space lit by a headlamp, and hope that the spiders aren’t there. Or, second, I can put the soffit on and hope that everything is all right...and risk ruining my house.

Oh, I know that I COULD send my son, but Isaac wouldn’t know what he was looking for and there would be no guarantee that he got it right; so that options not much better than my second choice. I could also cough up the money to have a pro look at it, but with a daughter starting college and all of the expenses of the house, funds are rather tight.

I guess the question becomes: Do I face my fears, do the work, and make sure that everything else we’ve done can stand; or, do I let my fears conquer me, quit doing the work – or do it superficially – and just hope that, somehow, it will be “good enough”?

Some of you can totally understand my problem. You’ve been on The Trek, you’ve been doing some work, and then you find a HUGE issue that needs to be addressed, some Critical Event that you’ve pushed so deep that you’re surprised when you find it again!

Now, you, too, have a choice. Do you open up the Critical Event, unpack it, and do the work to fix the problem? Or, do you pack it all back up, stuff it all back down, and hope that – somehow – it’ll fix itself...or at least not bother you too much?

In my case, if I don’t face my fears, the roof could rot, our home could be ruined, all the work we’ve accomplished so far would be pointless, and we’d be left with no place for our family and friends to gather.

But, what could the results be for you? If you let the rot from that Critical Event stay in your life – and it DOES stay with you until you deal with it – then it could squeeze out the room in your life for family, friends, and even yourself!

Gotta admit, I’m really NOT looking forward to climbing a ladder to my attic, but the risk is simply too great and the opportunities are absolutely worth it! So, today, I’ll face my fears to ensure a better future. (Right after I finish procrastinating by writing my blog posts!)

Will you do the same?

We hope you enjoy your journey!

- The Trek

September 29, 2022

Facing Your Fears

By Barry Rudesill

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