Article July 4, 1983 Issue

The understanding of God destroys fear

THELMA SHIPMAN SCHROEDER

Pipes were clanging in the basement of our remote mountain home. Something had to be done quickly, but what? I was alone and scared. Earlier, when the weather turned cold, I had telephoned my husband in the city for instructions to switch over our bucket-a-day coal furnace (which heated our water in warm weather) to the central heating system. There were valves to be closed and others to be opened before I could build a fire in the major furnace. I thought I had taken all needful steps, but apparently I hadn't. Steam was building up. Explosion seemed imminent unless the steam was released.

I called my husband again and reviewed my procedure with the valves. Visualizing at once the one I had neglected, he said, "You missed the safety valve, the one on top of the highest pipe. Go down and open it." Terrified at the thought, I said, "Go down in that basement? I can't. I'm too scared."

"You can and you will." His calm, warm voice, devoid of doubt, buoyed me up for quick action. As I dashed from the phone to the basement stairs a Bible verse touched my thought: "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." Ps. 56:3. With panic subdued, I felt God's presence and knew that I could lean on Him. I descended the three top steps, bent down to locate the safety valve, then went on to the furnace and turned the valve. Back at the bottom step I sat down and began to recognize the powerlessness, the nothingness, of fear.

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