Shotgun Anxiety
Growing up in the state of Alabama on one of the many back roads gave me good access to one of my favorite hobby's: Shooting guns. It all started with a BB gun for one Christmas and shooting cans in my backyard and I was hooked. Then as I got a little bit older I graduated to a .22 caliber Rifle and I was in love with it!
Something to know about guns is that the more powerful guns all have what's called a "kick". Where the gun recoils backward into your shoulder as the gun fires. The thing that made the .22 a good starting gun is that there was not kick at all. I could shoot it all day and not even be sore from it! The bad thing was that I got used to this rifle and I didn't even know that the more powerful weapons had a kick, I mean no one had ever told me and the .22 was all I had know.
Until one day I picked up a shotgun. I was just a kid and didn't know how to properly shoulder a weapon. I was just excited to get to try out a brand new gun! So I brought my gun up (I didn't shoulder it properly at all back then) and pulled the trigger.. It felt like a horse had kicked me right in my shoulder as my eyes started to water! I didn't shoot that gun again for a LONG time!
But something strange happened after that. Before this experience I had been pretty good at hitting all of my targets with my rifle, but now I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. What was happening!? Had this experience with a shotgun damaged me in some way?
I found the answer one evening as me and my father was out in the yard shooting. I was struggling to hit my target every time as my dad stood back and watched. He walked up and took the gun from me, looked at it for a minute and then handed it back. "Try it now", he said.
I aimed my gun excited that he had done something to fix my apparent problem. I got ready and slowly pulled the trigger all the way and the gun went "click". He had taken the bullet out. But I learned something from it. The gun didn't go off, there was no recoil, but I still jumped as my finger pulled the trigger throwing my site completely off target!
I was anticipating the pain I had felt from the shotgun. A pain that I didn't even feel when shooting the .22.
I let a past experience affect my present situation.
How often do we do that in life? We let how we think a situation is going to play out cause us to have anxiety. Maybe you told your testimony to someone one time and it didn't have the effect you thought it would, so now every time you think about doing it you think, " Well no one listened last time, why would this time be any different?"
You are essentially walking into situations planning to fail!
Henry Ford said it like this, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't - you're right".
We have to quit walking through life telling ourselves that we can't do something because a past experience or anxiety of what will happen is controlling us! Walk through your life saying this simple but profound verse:
Philippians 4:13
"I can do EVERYTHING through Christ, who gives me strength." (Emphasis Added)
When something seems scary or you anxious to try something new, declare this verse PROUDLY over yourself and walk into it with your head held high! God has given you everything that you need to succeed and all you have to do is seize this promise!
God believes in you. I believe in you. Now it is time to believe in yourself!
Whatever it is that you are hoping and praying to be able to do someday, DO IT! Don't let anxiety block you from achieving whatever it is you want to achieve in life.
Just like when I pulled that trigger and the gun was empty, so are the lies of the enemy!
Finishing note: Like what you read here? Please SUBSCRIBE to my website! OR maybe you want to offer some feedback? Scroll down to where it says "Drop me a line." and let me know what you thing! Another thing: Check out my new podcast! It will be on this same website in the "My Podcast" tab. The first episode is up and I'm recording the second this Saturday!
I Love you all and hope you have a blessed week, Ethan Corbett
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