Fear

I am extremely troubled by something I've noticed lately about our society, yet I'm not entirely surprised. No, it's not our culture's political embracement of homosexuality, or liberalism-gone-wild. While those things do concern me, at the moment, the one thing that is very bothersome is the fear that has swept our nation.

I don't think we fully grasp the impact fear can have on people until it engulfs a large group of people at the same time. For the past couple of years, we have witnessed a number of instances where fear has stopped people in their tracks.

What started as widespread panic over the collapse of the economy has now moved to concern over flu viruses. To make matters worse, it appears that our government leaders in Washington are bent on convincing us that we need to be afraid...that our only solution is the same government that historically has mismanaged nearly every program it has created. Evidence of this comes from President Obama's chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel who reportedly said "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste," essentially meaning that the federal government should use the opportunity presented by fear to scare citizens into turning over their rights and freedoms to the politicians in return for some government handout. And, it would appear that the government is doing all it can to follow through on Emanuel's comments.

The Rahm Emanuel comments came as part of the discussion over the financial crisis, but have also come into play in how the government is responding to the latest fear-monger, swine flu. At first, there was this public face that we should be very worried over this extremely deadly virus. But, when it turned out to not be so serious, the folks at the CDC had to come up with another scare tactic, namely the idea that swine flu could combine with avian flu and be real nasty (even though there is no proof that has happened or even will happen).

Even though this nationwide (and worldwide) panic appears to be enhanced by politicians in hunt of a power grab, the ultimate responsibility for this widespread fear lies on you and I. It is our fear that is continuing to drive the economic downturn, the hysteria over swine flu (or variations of it) and whatever else comes down the trail in coming days.

In a recent nationwide broadcast, author and talk show host Dave Ramsey pointed out that the entire collapse of the economic system was triggered by fear. He said that the markets are at false lows, and are being held down by fear. Likewise, the panic over flu viruses is also being caused in large part over fear of the unknown.

Well, since we don't know what lies around the corner, what can we do to combat this fear? We need to look to the Bible for answers. In Luke 12, Jesus tackles fear head on. He tells us not to fear the threats of man, but instead to fear the one who can take our soul. We should also not worry about those who will attack and defame us for our Christian faith (see Carrie Prejean). And, Jesus sums it all up by instructing us not to worry about the problems in this life, telling us that God has our best interests in mind and will care for those who follow Him.

What's great about Luke 12 is that Jesus also calls out the root of fear. He does it here, here and here. What's he telling us? I see a couple of things I want to point out.

First, Jesus tells us that those who live in fear are subject to the hypocrisy of the leaders in their community. He tells us to watch out for their lies and deceit, because they only seek to increase their pedistal.

Second, and more importantly, Jesus cautions us to not allow money (or other man-made things) to become our god. As we see around us today, when our false gods fail us, we tailspin into a panic that opens the door for the hypocrites (politicians) to make slaves of us.

Jesus had it right when He said these things 2,000 years ago. I think he was a bit smarter than our own modern-day thinkers.

What are your thoughts on fear? Drop a comment, and let me know.