What are we so afraid of?

(december)

hi
This is our end of the year update. Not necessarily too christmasy but I hope worthwhile as a read and maybe a good challenge for us all, me included. Most of all, I am always grateful for many friends who have helped out our family, Discovery, the Church of Love and Compassion and given at great sacrifice of time, finances, resources, sweat and of course friendship. It is at times difficult to express to so many our gratefulness adequately. It is even more difficult to get away and visit. I wish we had more time to do so. Please know you are loved and appreciated more than you can know. I always pray that the Lord will return your kindness and friendship many fold....



Fear
Sometime a coupe weeks ago, I was watching something or another (probably news) and I heard some one say, "remember, do not talk to strangers." It struck me. I am often reminded of the outreaches we used to do in Jamaica. Where ever I went there was greeting. Anytime I walked up and down Cox St. in Port Maria I heard greeting: "Good Morning", "Good Day", "Good Evening", "Good Night", "Yes Dave", "Alright", "Respect", "Whitey", and I greeted back. It is familiar and custom to engage and greet people. There were always smiles and eye contact and always time to stop and talk.

One night, on a trip where two of us had gone ahead of our team to prepare ministry ( really just hang out and enjoy Jamaica) I was playing checkers with a 6 year old friend, Minty (and getting beat every time). About 10:30 at night, I was walking up Cox St. and a man approached me from the bushes. I saw a flicker of light in his hand when I realized he had a butcher knife in one hand and the collar of my shirt in the other. He raised the knife to my face and asked me if I had any money. I said no without a blink and just stared at his eyes, the knife to my face and we were frozen in time. All I could do was wonder why I said no. I had 100 J (Jamaican Dollars) which equaled 3 US dollars at the time. My first rationalization was that it was God's money not mine. My realization was that I was stupid enough to die for $3.

Without a further word he pushed me backwards and went on. That's when I began to shake. Fear rose like a monster in my heart and took over my body and immediately there were dogs, about 5 small narly little 3rd World mutts growling and barking and charging at my feet. They smelled the fear. My body was quaking. I kicked at the dogs, picked up small pebbles and started throwing. The dogs left me alone and I walked back to our house. That night I laid awake, rehearsing the events in my mind, listening to the chickens and dogs, the music and voices of the night; gripped by anxiety. It reminded me of another time in High School back in Oshkosh. Two friends and I were coming back from Shakey's Pizza one Friday night on a quiet city block when a car pulled up, a few guys got out and one came over and punched out three of us. Cold cocked. (We later dubbed him "Buddy Ed" because we went through Yearbooks trying to find out who he was and thought we recognized him.) Buddy Ed broke my friend Mark's nose and chipped a tooth, He put down my friend Doug twice, and I managed to go down a little fast when he hit me and I stayed down. Then he left laughing with his friends and squealing tires.

I could not walk to school for a year without looking back at every car that came from behind. I was afraid. I looked over my shoulder for a few days in Jamaica too.

We would return to the States after a 4 - 6 week stay in Jamaica and often we stayed with friends from Wellspring church in Lyons Il. We would walk around the neighborhoods. Every garage door closed, curtains pulled. Every house lonely and quiet. We would go to Chicago, or to a mall and when I encountered people I would greet them out of the habit I had formed. People were stunned. They seldom acknowledged the greeting. They looked away. My eye contact made people uneasy. I often wonder what is wrong with us (Americans)?

"Do not talk to strangers." Those words pierced me for some reason. That's it. An American mantra. Fear. We teach it to our kids. Story after story of tabloid riddled news programs reinforce the fears. Missing children, bizarre and gruesome stories, school shootings, mall shootings and now something that hits close to home a shooting at a YWAM campus. Two young people killed, senseless and brutal.

What is the opposite of Love?
I have already been thinking about these things for maybe 2 weeks. Has the "do not talk to strangers" affected us as believers? Do we approach people with a mistrust and suspicion without an awareness of it. What place does fear play in our lives? Not too long ago someone rhetorically asked what is the opposite of Love. My first instinct was hate, but no, the opposite of love is fear. Five years ago now Billy and his brother Larry came to us after walking and hitchhiking from Seattle. We took them in. God was evidently at work in their lives. A week after taking them in I was sharing about missions at a church and telling the story about Billy and Larry and how miraculous their journey and our encounter had been. Someone took me aside and warned me I should not have done that because "you don't know who they are." Even locally there was suspicion "what do they really want?" ...........To know God!

Frustrating attitudes. Why are we so filled with anxiety disorders, syndromes and medications? What have we become so afraid of?

We live in a dangerous world. Risk is an everyday reality. We legislate, regulate, wear helmets and harnesses, we check backgrounds, build fences and go to war. We cry for peace and safety and then sudden destruction comes. We die in car wrecks wearing our seatbelts, we die without them. We see tragic, senseless and evil things everyday. Paul tells us to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Of course that is Romans 12 and set in the context of what love looks like.

Our security does not come from a good portfolio, retirement, career, gated communities or education. Alarms, metal detectors, fences, defense shields, laws, curfews do not stop evil men. The safest place is in God's perfect will for our lives. That does not mean we will not die in a terror attack or be killed by a Sikh Hindu in India or a troubled individual standing in our doorway. It simply means that in God's presence we can have confidence. Many have been called to lay down their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Faith trusts in the trueness of God's love for us. Hope trusts in the reality of our own resurrection. His love is the only eternal security we have. Faith is confidence that God will be God. It is human nature to doubt. Many great men and women of God have doubted Him in crises of faith, as have I. Yet He has never failed anyone of us, even in death.

Love is motivating, fear is debilitating. Love frees us, fear paralyzes us. Love opens us, fear closes us. Love compels, fear reacts. God's love is a refuge; in fear, we hide. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. That does not mean I will not have fear if I am held at knifepoint, moreover be it one of my loved ones. But it can change how I look and interact with people and the world around me. Love can give me a different perspective than the headlines, soundbites, and "news" stories we are constantly bombarded by.

Everyday we are given reasons to be afraid of Muslims, Illegals, rapists, murderers, extortioners, identity thieves, drunk drivers, gangsters, capitalists, socialists, a golden compass, atheists, New Agers, nonenglish speakers, Republicans, Democrats, homosexuals, .............. Maybe there is a more missional way to live. Maybe God has a purpose that is not America centered, not me centered, but Kingdom of God centered, Good News of Jesus centered. Not fear centered but, Love of God centered... a higher call.