Strengths and Fears

OK, after a heavy entry this morning, I had to have a little fun.
Here's my boy...






He's 5 years old and catching full air on his bike!
He's some kind of extreme-sport child prodigy!
He is obsessed with turning everything into a ramp for his bike, board or scooter.
He's awesome.
He's fearless.
Or so you'd think from these pictures.

But let one drop of rain fall from the sky and he's running to his momma like, well,
like a 5 year old boy.

I can pinpoint his irrational fear to one of two events:
The sump-pump quit on us a few weeks back and the drain started to overflow in our basement.
Robin, to no fault of her own, didn't know what to do and freaked out a bit.
I rushed home and got the pump on- problem solved.
No damage done.
But Justin was freaked out!

Then camping two weeks ago a pretty big wind storm kicked up.
That can be scary in a little pop-up camper.
He freaked.
Now he's literally afraid of a drop of rain.

We have areas in life where we demonstrate great faith.
But they usually coincide with our strengths.
We have areas of great fear that usually coincide with our known weaknesses.

So what does that really say about our "faith?"
We can look so strong-of-faith in some obstacles of life.
But put us in another situation, and we cry.
What would it look like to show faith in those areas where we really know, we are weak and not in control?

Faith is best exercised in our weakness, not our strength.
Not that we want to be weak and afraid.
It's just that we need to be strong in Christ alone.

(Incidentally, I'm convinced his fear is a sign of great intelligence and well-developed abstract thought. He has embodied the fear he witnessed in his mother, an otherwise pillar of strength for a child. It might take a while to beat this, but I'm sure my little man is up to the challenge!)