"Fear"

So this summer I had an amazing oppurtunity to travel to the Bahamas. I went down there with some close friends who I work with at the church. We were going down there to help teach a vacation bible school to ages ranging from 2-17. Yes, a very diverse group of kids. As soon as I stepped foot on the island, I all but fell in love with the place. From the beautiful sunsets, to the amazing water, the amazing people who lived there, all of this just captured my heart. So, you may ask how does fear work into a place where I have fallen in love with and was in awe of the presence of God on this island? Well one activity I was looking forward to the most (snorkeling) was the event that allowed me to expierence like I never have before. If you are unaware the Bahamas are located in the Caribbean Ocean, which I latered found out is te "Shark Capitol of the World". So now I bet you are begginging to see how fear is going to work in to this trip. My first dive into the great Caribbean was a very interesting event. I was so paranoid about turning around and seeing Jaws coming after my skinny legs. Yeah, exactly Jaws is not real. Needless to say I was out of the water within five minutes of jumping in to the ocean. Now the part I didnt mention was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It was the coral reef and all of the beautiful fish that live on this reef. I was unable to calm down and enjoy the beauty that God has created because, I was to afraid of some horrible creature or fish coming and attacking me. I was distracted by this fear of something I really had no control over. This was something new for me. I always thought I was a big tough man basically. Nothing was supposed to scare me. Yet this amazingly beautiful underwater world was causing me to have anxiety and a consuming feeling of fear. While one day walking on the coral listening to the Ipod and praying Matt Redmans song "You Never Let Go" started playing. If you are unaware of the song the first lines of the song are "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death You perfect love is casting out fear". Which is derived from Psalm 23:4. At that moment it dawned on me if my God is with me what should scare me. The answer is very simple...Nothing. I was so caught up with fear I was unable to calm down and enjoy Gods creation. I was constantly whipping my head around trying to find the "bad thing" that wanted me. I was able to realize fear was trying to creep into my life and I quickly realized my God is with me then what should I fear? If something as beautiful as a coral reef scares me I needed to evaulute what in my every day life scared me and causing me to miss the beauty of God. So what in your life is causing fear making you miss Gods creation?