Jerusha: I’m delighted to welcome back Michelle Ule as my guest today. The biographer of Mrs. Oswald Chambers, Michelle is releasing A Poppy in Remembrance, a WWI novel, this week and is giving away one free copy to one of you! Leave a comment below to enter the giveaway!
By Michelle Ule
“What do you think about when we drive over the Golden Gate Bridge?” I asked my husband as we maneuvered across the span to San Francisco.
He shrugged. “Not much. How’s the traffic, which lane do I want to be in, that type of thing.”
“You don’t think about how it can withstand an earthquake? What it felt like to ride a submarine underneath? How much paint they need to keep it from rusting?”
He laughed.
I continued. “Perhaps you remember the story of the commanding officer swept off the submarine’s sail as he went under the bridge and how he was never seen again?”
He never remembered that sea story unless I brought it up.
My imagination, meanwhile, spun off to other questions:
What if an earthquake hit while we were in the middle of the span?
What if one of the oncoming cars suddenly swerved into our lane?
What would it feel like if a crash sent us off the bridge?
Before we reached the tollbooth, my heart raced and my blood pounded because my imagination had run amok. Unwarranted fear threatened to derail a pleasant outing.
My poor husband just sighed.
It had happened before.
BEING PREPARED
Over the years my husband and I have found equilibrium for most of our foibles, but he still gets impatient when I voice fear–particularly about terrors unlikely to happen.
Some of that is our characters–he’s a retired military officer and a risk-taking businessman who trusts in the Lord.
I’m with him on the trusting the Lord part and while I haven’t suffered many dramatic horrors, you never know . . .
Still, with three Eagle Scouts in the family, we spent seventeen years being prepared.
That meant, of course, thinking up situations to prepare for.
We had a first aid kit, an earthquake kit, an accident information check off list in the car, and a detailed note posted (in order of importance) of what to take in case of fire.
Their schools asked us to imagine and make up an emergency plan—done.
All those preparations were perfectly normal and part of responsible living.
BUT WHAT ABOUT FEAR
I needed to reign in my imagination and deal with the fear if I wanted peace in my house and in my heart.
A friend explained that FEAR can be understood as False Evidence Appearing Real.
When confronting situations that made my heart race, therefore, I needed to use my brain, rather than my imagination,
2 Corinthians 10:5 reminded me to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
(That’s the same Jesus Christ who told his disciples to “take courage; do not be afraid,” in Mark 6:50.)
To do that, I needed to step back from my anxiety and engage my brain.
I taught myself to ask basic questions about whatever caused fear:
- Was it true?
- How likely was it to happen?
- Do I personally know anyone who actually experienced it?
- Can I do anything to improve the odds it won’t happen to me?
- Did I need to ask someone to help me with this fear?
I couldn’t effectively deal with something I feared unless I named and recognized it.
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE FEARS
When tackling the Golden Gate Bridge, I thought and prayed about each fearful question until I reached reasonable answers.
What if there’s an earthquake while we’re in the middle of the span?
California earthquakes can occur at any time or place. One could happen while I’m driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, but chances are an earthquake would more likely occur near our home—not far from the active San Andreas Fault.
In a recent retrofit, engineers designed the Golden Gate Bridge to withstand an 8.3 earthquake. If one that big occurs while I’m on the bridge, I have other problems.
What if an oncoming car suddenly swerved into our lane?
The bridge now has barriers down the middle. To feel extra safe, I drive in the right lane.
What would it feel like if a crash pushed the car off the bridge?
If a crash propelled the car toward the edge, even from the right lane, it would have to go through a metal barrier, across five feet of sidewalk and into another sturdy iron fence.
If the car got all the way through that, I’m not sure I’d have time to think about how it felt. I’d be in God’s hands anyway.
I don’t have any problem driving across the Golden Gate Bridge anymore, and sometimes I even use the middle lane.
IMAGINATION
Imagination enables people to perform marvelous feats, invent fantastic machinery, dream up stories, and even harness the atom!
It allows Boy Scouts to prepare before an emergency.
Imagination can solve practical problems as well.
Mariners have always recognized the Golden Gate Strait ‘s treacherous waters.
But no one imagined a nuclear submarine skipper would be swept overboard.
Yet that’s what happened to Commander Alvin Wilderman on December 1, 1973 of the USS Plunger. Everyone else had gone below. A rogue wave caught the commanding officer and they never saw him again.
The US Navy submarine force, shaken by the event, didn’t have to use imagination to change their policies. No one has been allowed “topside” on a submarine traversing the Golden Gate since.
Indeed, my husband never worried about riding in the sail on a submarine during his twenty years in the Navy, including under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Though, there was that time a Great White Shark lunged for him when he looked over the top of the submarine sail . . .
Even I never imagined something like that would happen to him!
It was just another fear to turn over to God—happily!
Does your imagination ever run away with you? How do you control your imagination and beat the fears it causes? Please share!
Michelle Ule is an essayist, the author of two novels, five best-selling novellas, and the biographer of Mrs. Oswald Chambers: The Woman Behind the World’s Bestselling Devotional.
A UCLA graduate, she’s taught Bible study for 35 years and loves to travel the world. Michelle lives in Northern California with her family.
Connect with Michelle at her website and on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Michelle is generously giving away a copy of A Poppy in Remembrance to one of you! (Winner will have choice of digital or print copy.) Simply leave a comment below for your chance to win! (Winner to be selected Nov. 5, 2018; Winner must have continental U. S. address.)
Spanning three countries and the four years of World War I, A Poppy in Remembrance is the epic story of an American woman struggling to become a journalist in a man’s world.
As she searches for where she belongs—spiritually, professionally and emotionally—Claire Meacham discovers God and love through her relationships with Oswald and Biddy Chambers, an earnest YMCA worker, and a dashing New Zealand soldier, all the while seeking that elusive byline.
Comments 16
Wonderful interview – I guess my imagination could use some work…lol. I have never thought of things like that as I drive over a bridge, even though they do bring out some fear. So very glad we have a God that has everything in control!
Thanks for the giveaway. The book sounds wonderful.
Imagination is a gift from God–it’s just up to us to harness it for good rather than to destroy.
Over the weekend, I heard another quote. Fear means we’re focusing on the wrong Kingdom. I thought that very pertinent.
Best wishes!
Author
Congratulations, Betti! You’re the randomly selected winner of Michelle Ule’s A Poppy in Remembrance! I’ll email you with more details.
Yes, my imagination runs away with me and I don’t always harness that in very well. I’m a work in progress for sure! Thank you for your wisdom and insights. I would love to win a copy of your book. I love Oswald Chambers but know nothing about his dear wife. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the drawing. Blessings to you!
Thanks, Mary Ellen! An imagination is a gift my husband doesn’t always appreciate in me! 🙂
Best wishes.
Thanks for the interesting post. Our book club read your bio of Biddy Chambers and enjoyed it. The novel looks like a good one.
Great! Thanks, Anne.
What a fantastic imagination you have! It makes me want to read your book!
Hey Michelle. So good to find you here! Love your thoughts on runaway imagination. Like all the gifts God gives, there’s always the challenge to see that it’s steered in the right direction. Thanks for sharing your insights and wisdom. (Almost had me with the Great White Shark thing… 🙂 )
Ah, but the Great White Shark story DID happen!
Fortunately, the sail was very high, but the shark leapt five times with jaws wide open. The shark thumped down on the front part of the boat (a submarine is called a boat) and the enormous shark (about 14 feet long) rolled right off back into the water.
My husband and the other man just shook their heads at a shark attacking a nuclear submarine.
Everyone survived. 😉
Nice to see you, too, Mary!
Love it, MJ!
I’d rather have the imagination than not. The trick is to train it for appropriate use! Lol
Wow Michelle! I loved your post and felt so related to it! I once felt a strong earthquake in Italy, I was not in the epicenter in L’Aquila but quite near. Nothing happened where I was, we were just very shaken. But I really thought for a minute I was going to die right there (I was onj the 7th floor). That, and being stuck in the middle of the railway with the train coming (could get out of it in time thank God)… Since then, I’m sometimes afraid that something terrible may happen. And I really have a VERY vivid imagination that sometimes give me trouble or makes me judge other people intentions. I’ve been battling it for quite some time. Something that has helped is what you say that we are in God’s hands anyway, so there’s nothing to fear at all. Whatever He has planned for us, he will give us the grace to overcome. And even if it’s not what we wish for or expect, He’s the only one who can bring good out of bad things. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! And you’re right we have to learn to control our imagination so it can work for all the good things that make us better and help the world be a better place!
Amen. He will provide the grace to overcome the circumstances–and the fear. That’s wise, Paty. Thanks for sharing it!
I grew up in California and have been through some big quakes, but there’s nothing I can do about if/when/where they’ll come.
Curiously, after the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, I told my husband I was going to check our earthquake kit–because California was well overdue for a big one.
That night, instead, the fires roared through Sonoma County and we evacuated at 4 o’clock in the morning–not to return home for 13 days.
But, we did get to come home. 29 families in our church, however, lost their homes.
We’re all in a heightened sense of fear out here, even a year later. Smoke at the wrong time and place sets our hearts to racing.
OTOH, coming through the fires safely means I’m wary and careful, but I’m not afraid.
So far.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks for commenting.
Hello Michelle….Wow-reading your words grabbed my heart deeply as I felt you were speaking right to my fearful spirit. As a young person I laughed at my grandma’s fearfulness. I marveled as I saw my mother pick up that mantle from Gram, and then when I became a mother I found myself becoming way too familiar with fear as well. My husband and children see my anxiety increasing- as do I. The need for me to address this is long overdue ! Your words greatly challenged me…THANK YOU! Your book sounds great-I love reading Oswald Chamber’s words…they challenge and spur me on! My oldest child has a journalism background and would gobble this book up…This title needs to be on both of our reading lists. Blessings!
Thanks, Becky. I think we mothers must get a dose of child-based fear sensitivity when we give birth! I’m not sure I fretted so much before I had so many more people to worry about!
OC, of course, had little patience for fear–we either believe God or not. I’m trying to remember that . . . 🙂
And I have to say, after writing Biddy’s biography, I’m a lot better about believing God is in the midst of my circumstances, no matter what.
Which can be a terrific antidote to fear.
Sounds interesting! Would love to read it😊