Two minutes after this picture was taken, a great white shark lying in wait on the muddy bottom of this central Texas stream attacked these folks lounging in their inner-tubes.
There was no great white shark, of course. But fear is often just that unreasonable. Fear of non-existent sharks is Darkness at Noon. And dreaded Night Terrors take over after the sun sets.
All these fears belong in the Litter Boat, located next to our inner tube travelers. But dispensing with fear is not always that easy.
There’s a Fear du Jour, a fear for every day of the year, with some left over. There’s fear of that dreaded conversation. Fear of not finding a job. Fear of finding the wrong job. Fear of that new pain, or itch, or twitch that wasn’t there yesterday.
The defense against unreasonable fear is: channel-switching. Channel-switching is the intentional act of guiding the heart and soul into pleasant pastures.
I had to channel-switch three nights ago after a particularly disastrous day turned me into an unmitigated failure. I knew I was done for. My attitude, my anger, my weight, my finances, my entire future all belonged in the dumpster. I feared my life was out of control.
So I desperately switched channels.
I switched to the channel that played back to me all the best things in my life. True friends. Great mentors. A reliable car. An honest paycheck. An adaptable future. A forgiving family. A loving God.
As I drifted along downstream, I stuffed all the rest into the Litter Boat, helping to turn my gray thoughts into brightness.