When Fear Strikes ---

A police officer surveys the damage following a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Cebu city (2013) .....pbsn.bisayans.com..... image from Google

                 I already forgot how real fear really feels like in a long time now. I know one thing though, it can either make or break you.

                 It was October 14, anxiety struck the ACT walls. A huge announcement hit us. In a week we are going to prepare for accreditation, the PACUCOA(Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission On Accreditation) pre-visit. So we rushed to plan for it since the following day was a holiday. We planned to come to school to make preparations.

                 That night I hushed to sleep with big plans in mind. Then came the morning whispering to remind me today is going to be a busy day.

             Unfortunately, nature has big plans as well, she woke me up in a strange scenario. She seemed to have rocked my bed with forceful hands telling me to get up. It was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter situated in Bohol.

I shrunk in fear. Grabbed my son. Called my Maker out loud. “Lord, please! Lord!” I went on till the shaking ceased.

             My “fear meter” as I’d like to call it, went higher the earthquake’s magnitude. It went beyond the boundaries of my capacity to hold it in. I kept telling myself everything’s gonna be fine. But I felt otherwise.

                 For the first time, I wasn’t able to explain nor define what I was so scared of. Was it death? Was it property damage? Was it losing someone special? I don’t have the answers to my questions. All I know was that I was so scared.

                However, that fear didn’t break me,(though I broke to tears a couple times).That prayer Mrs. Basco, Allen’s mom, sent me helped me stand firm in every aftershock.

“Father God, we ask humbly that you spare our families, relatives and our nation from the threat of this earthquake. We lift our safety unto your loving arms and shield us from destruction. We ask this in the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.”

                One ginormous truth hit me. Fear is that same skeleton I despised when I was a child. It is my perspective that changed. There’s a lot of people I care about now. That’s fear’s leverage over me. And that very same reason too is my leverage over fear.