Most of the things that you are afraid of, at this very moment, will never come to pass. They are the products of misinformation, media hype, and plain old paranoia.

     Take my friend, Anna, for example. With summer upon us and the beaches opening up, she will once again refuse to swim in the ocean for fear of sharks.

     Is this realistic? To give up the beauty of the surf, year after year, for fear that a shark will emerge from the depths and devour you for lunch? (If you listen closely, you can hear the theme music from “Jaws” playing in the background …)

     Well, according to the number crunchers, the odds of a beachgoer being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million. (Don’t ask me how they figured that out.) The odds of actually being killed by a shark, they say, are 1 in 264.1 million.

     In fact, Anna is more likely to be killed by a falling icicle (15 fatalities a year in the U.S.) than by a shark (only one fatality every two years).

     As you might guess, the most dangerous part of going to the beach is the drive to get there, since your chances of dying in a vehicle crash are 1 in 103.

     My point is this: it’s important to our quality of life to differentiate between realistic and unrealistic fears. Armed with good information, our minds can counter the wild imaginings of our emotions.

     When Betty and I lived in the Amazon, receiving volunteer work teams from around the world, we always spent the first hour with them talking about fear. No, we explained, you don’t need to worry about piranhas, jaguars, giant anacondas or insidious little fish that swim up your urinary tract. Yes, you do need to worry about drinking bad water, fire ants, and stepping on a fresh-water stingray, which has a very nasty stinger.

     Armed with the truth, our visitors could relax and really enjoy their time in the Amazon.

     I own a wisdom book that speaks clearly to the issue. It says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

FRIDAY’S POP QUIZ: Study the photos below and rank them according to how likely you think they are to kill you.