Fear Not!

North Korea threatens to launch a missile towards the quiet vacation destination of the Hawaiian Isles. There, where paradise calls the sun-loving to its white sand shores, N. Korea’s sinister government has set its cross hairs, fixed!

Iran’s government, allegedly ‘theocratic’ [meaning god run/head], has declared war on their neighbor, Israel, vowing to annihilate them entirely. The ‘godly’ leaders permit a rain of acid laden water to fall on thousands of Iran’s young people who have gathered to demonstrate their sentiments about a bogus election and the hierarchy ruler.

A jihad against the west has been ongoing for some 2o years with peaks and valleys in assaults and strategic planning. Thousands have died for religious differences, pitting tribal culture against personal independence.

Somalia, Darfur, Afghanistan, Iraq, Mexico-U.S border: where acts of violence and full disregard for persons and property is wide spread.

There has been much discussion for the past few decades that people in western countries have grown calloused, cool, or immune to incidents of violence. They say a correlation is drawn between the number of acts of violence viewed as ‘entertainment’ -- either in the form of movies, television, or now gamers – and the human response to real violence.

The human spirit is such a fascinating entity! It sequesters itself in the routine of its being, lurking in the dark shadows of the character who would practice death in a virtual world, donning an alter ego in avatar’s form while also engaging a background program designed to startle the mind with bits of information assaulting one’s cognizance -- pricking it to consciousness as real life news of violence in foreign lands is reported. There is an ethereal nascent nudge of the mind by the human spirit towards the innate capacity for empathy, yet the inkling is so unfamiliar it is disquieting, usually excused, ignored. But with the increased level of violence encroaching on the human spirit in each of us and at such loud decibel levels with IED’s and Bombs, rockets, missiles, rapid weapon fire and shouts of crowds, it is increasingly more and more difficult to deny. The more insecure, more vulnerable we become with this encroachment, the more our natural self begins to respond. Fear is just beginning to dawn on the horizon of the western world. It comes in waves of assaults upon all that freedom, security, independence and individuality offers and in all who have been born to such privilege. It leers in the purple shadows of the morning light knowing the fertile ground it will inhabit in those holding fear as a notion. The human spirit is growing weary ignoring the signs of turbulence growing in the turbid first waves of the hint of fear’s approach. An ominous sensibility quakes resolve and confidence with each report of threat and mayhem. As the body receives this frequency of fear, adrenaline seeps into the blood and moves the body to a state of preparedness: raising the internal threat level to peak awareness. The rapidity of the reports of horror leaves no time for recreation, causing a weakened state of being with fear as the driving force.

There comes a time when the human spirit acknowledges its own capacity for stress management and defers to the ‘SPIRIT’ for back up. It is here where our ‘faith’ acts as a salve to quiet the mind and emotion of the fear. It is here where we remember the Lord’s exhortation as he finished telling his friends the future; a future which seems to be more our reality with each passing minute. After telling them some would live in a time of such momentous terror he says this: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” [ Luke 21:28]

What is probably the most amazing quality of the human spirit is its capacity for ‘hope’ and its unquenchable ‘belief’ in salvation, even if only in the person or form of a ‘white night’-- an obvious synonym for ‘Savior’.

As we hear of ‘reports of war’ and hear of reports of perverseness in the guise of religion, or ‘name’ of God, we draw peace from the Prince of Peace. We draw on the Forever Father, Mighty God, whose confidence lives on through our Spirit as we recall the WORD OF GOD!

“LIFT UP YOUR HEADS; YOUR REDEMPTION DRAWETH NIGH”! Fear Not!

Contemplation: How might you rise to the ever looming challenge of fear?