How I Overcame My Fear of Words

Years ago, I was issued a simple challenge: do something that takes you out of your comfort zone. I had no idea how lifechanging that would be.

At school, I was a maths and science guy. I loved logic, structure, formulas. Words, though? They baffled me. English was a subject I couldn’t feel, couldn’t grasp—so I switched off. Writing, especially creative writing, felt like trying to paint with invisible ink. Nothing stuck. Nothing made sense. So, naturally, when I was looking for a way to push myself, I chose the most frightening thing I could think of: writing short stories.

I rang the local community college and asked about courses. There were two: beginners and advanced. I signed up for the beginners. Easy. Sensible.

Then came the curveball: two weeks before term started, they rang to say the beginners course wasn’t going ahead—but would I like to join the advanced one?

My stress levels went from 7 to 17. But something in me said, Why not? So I wrote a piece. No training, no confidence, no idea. I just wrote. And it was… okay. Not great, but not worse than anyone else in the room. That mattered. That got me back the next week, and the next. I ended up enrolling every term the following year.

Eventually, I completed my first full short story and entered it into a competition. To my great surprise, I won. At the presentation, a former winner came up to me and said, “Everyone who’s won this has gone on to publish novels.” That didn’t happen for me—at least not in the way she meant. Because by then, something deeper had been stirred.

That early brush with imagination planted a seed. Instead of publishing fiction, I found myself drawing that creativity into another part of my life: preaching. I pursued a doctorate exploring the role of imagination and creativity in proclaiming the gospel. That decision shaped the next few decades—teaching, researching, and inviting others into a way of communicating that breathes life.

Looking back, I can see what helped me overcome my fear of words:

• First, the challenge. I didn’t dismiss it—I took it seriously, and it led somewhere unexpected.
• Second, the leap. I could have said no when the beginners course was cancelled. But I didn’t. I jumped into the deep end, and it wasn’t as terrifying as I’d imagined.
• Third, persistence. Encouraged by early signs of promise, I kept going. I joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers, attended workshops, and stayed curious.

I started out afraid of words. Now, I use them every day to teach, preach, and help others discover their own voice. That one invitation to step outside my comfort zone didn’t just help me overcome a fear—it gave me a new language for life and faith.