Be Very Afraid
by Prince Omar
I decided to Google a list of phobias one day, after reading about two types of fear: irrational fear, commonly known as Phobia, and rational fear. Did you know that Hippopotmonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words? Chaetophobia is the fear of hair and Kathisophobia is the fear of sitting down. There is also Dextrophobia, the fear of objects on the right side of the body. There seems to be a phobia for everything, but I am yet to find what the fear of pressure cookers is called.
My parents taught me how to cook when I was in my early teens. One day, I wanted to surprise them with a hot, tasty, nicely prepared dinner. The delicacy for the day was ‘Curried Goat’ and I decided to use the pressure cooker, which was quicker than the cooking method my Mom normally used. In my Pressure Cooker 101 classes, Mommy told me about the dangers associated with that device and did warn me about using it only when she was around. But what did she know? I was way ahead of the curve and just as good a cook as she was, at least in my mind. I was born for this!
Turned out that it could have been the end of me. I somehow managed to improperly close the lid on that thing, and the pressure built up in the cooker caused such an explosion in the kitchen. It sounded like a bomb. I cannot even explain the fright that overtook me when I realized I was a mere two footsteps away from re-entering the kitchen, having briefly stepped out to watch G.I. Joe on the television. The kitchen walls looked like they were painted lime green. There was meat stuck to the ceiling and the lid of the pressure cooker broke some dishes. You can only imagine the hundreds of questions and thoughts that entered my mind. What if I was still in the kitchen when that happened? If I had died, would they have cooked Curried Goat at the repast? What if one of my sisters was in the kitchen when the explosion occurred? How many females would have been denied the pleasure of beholding such a handsome face if it had gotten disfigured from the explosion? I am terrified of pressure cookers to this day and I refuse to use one. I am very afraid for my wife whenever she uses it. If anything bad were to happen, I don’t know if I would be able to rescue her in time, since I’m normally nowhere near the kitchen when she’s using it. Whenever I hear the sound of the weight dancing to the terrifying rhythms of the pressure cooker’s steam, I recall that day…..I could have been scarred for life.
Fear is defined as a natural human instinct; a normal reaction to a perceived threat. A phobia, on the other hand, is a completely irrational reaction to something that in reality poses no genuine threat to our safety. We all have our fears and some of us have both fears and phobias, but fear is not always an unpleasant emotion. Take the fear of the Lord for instance. The Bible states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9.10). It does not mean that we cringe and tremble at the utterance of God’s name. What it means is that we revere and honor Him. It means that we stand in awe of His excellence, majesty, and greatness, while properly respecting His wrath and anger. It is a complete acknowledgment of all that God is, which comes through knowing Him and all His attributes. If we were, to be honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that more often than not, we fear many other things ahead of fearing God. Presscooknophobia (my suggested name for a fear of pressure cookers) restrains me from using a pressure cooker, or entering a kitchen when one is in use.
May the fear of God restrain us from sin and keep us in His protection and provision.
