Fear First, Laugh Second

Do you remember the first time you went into a haunted house at an amusement park? Most of us could probably answer that one easy and readily admit that, "yes, we were scared!"

My first time entering a haunted house was in fifth grade and I can sort of remember myself being completely terrified. Especially passing by a closed coffin which opened in front of me and a vampire slowly rising out of it.

While at Universal Studios Amusement Park this past summer I dared to enter the Haunted House. I remember going in it last year for the first time and being caught off-guard in fear at the different special effects that sneak up to scare you.
And they do a pretty good job of it at Universal Studios!

This time going through it I kind of knew what to expect so the thrill of being scared wasn't there. But what did catch my attention was the group of pre teens from China who were obviously going through it for the first time. We were only inside the fright house a mere 15 seconds when one of the kids turned back and declined to face the fear. As I followed, the group of kids before me were all huddled together, embracing each other as they walked through the dark corridor, jumping at every movement of creatures that came up to scare them. This Haunted House had everything from a roomful of mirrors (that was hard to find a way out), to finding our way through some dead bodies(fake, mind you) wrapped in plastic hanging from the rafters.
Once the wolfman jumped out, these kids were so scared they did not want to complete the crossing of the bridge. My brother and I were amused but encouraged the kids to move on, we were almost finished with facing our fear.

Afterward, when we made it out "alive", I found the teens from China laughing out loud in good nature at the fear they had just faced and survived.

Thanks to these kids from China whom I got a chance to talk to,I suddenly realized something:

There are some things in life we may face and our first initial reaction may be one of fear. When we approach that fear with faith we get through it. We are now more prepared for the next fear factor that enters our life and so our fear is now, or should I say "should be", replaced with the attitude of: "No big deal, I've been through this before, nothing to get scared about, I'll make it".

F.D.R. once said that, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Facing your fears is a good thing, for the next time around you should find yourself laughing out loud! If not, then you didn't face your fear in faith.