Thoughts on Non-Violence Part 8: Fear
October 26th, 2006 | by Scott |In the mid-morning hours of September 11th, 2001, before the anger welled up within us and took root in the national psyche, we experienced a communal wave of fear.
Who did this to us?
How could this happen on our soil?
Why would anyone want to harm us in this way?
The uncertainty was palpable as gas lines extended for blocks and parents checked their children out of school early in order to gather and protect against any localized aftershocks.
This understandable wave of fear would soon permeate many aspects of our lives. Duct-tape became more than a handy household item. It would soon pair with plastic sheeting to provide the duo that would innoculate us from any air-borne pathogens that would serve as the follow-up to the first wave of attacks.
We were afraid even to go to the mailbox.
That fear would manifest itself in the political forum as candidates stirred those pangs of anxiety that indicated that the pressing of the wrong button in the voting booth would be a harbinger of the apocalypse.
I shared in that fear. I held my newborn daughter especially close in those days. I wept over the prospect of the Jericho-style world that she might be brought up in.
And as I clutched her in my fear, I lost perspective of what the true lesson was.
Fear can be a good thing. It is not in and of itself evil. It is one of the strongest emotions that God has given us.
It keeps up a few paces away from the side of the cliff. It prompts us to ease up on the gas pedal.
It can be good. But it can also be abused.
And in our society, fear is the ultimate motivator to take up violence as the premier method for “standing up.”
But to be consummed or controlled by fear is dangerous.
And it is sin.
It is sin because it exhibits a lack of faith in God and is expressely forbidden by Him (Matthew 6:25–34)
You see, for the Child of God there is no reason to fear. God instructs us some 365 times in Scripture to not be afraid (one for every day of the year).
He is ultimately in control. To fear is to cast His sovereignty in doubt.
Fear negatively manifests itself when we place our emphasis on the wrong day: tomorrow. All that He has given us is this day. And it has enough worries of its own.
But fear is so prevalent. Our existence is so tenuous. It is easy to succumb to worry and anxiety about tomorrow.
–This time will it be a school close to me that endures a gun-wielding madman?
–Will there be another attack on this nation, this time closer to home?
–What will happen to my children if terrorism is not eradicated?
Yet, ultimately, those are not the proper questions that we are to be asking. Those questions are rooted in an earthly focus that sequesters hope to an exclusively intangible concept. The important questions are (cribbing from Paul):
–If God is for us, who can be against us? (Nobody)
–Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? (Again, nobody)
–Who is to condemn? (Once more, nobody)
–Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Say it with me, “nobody.”)
–Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (That’s a resounding no.)
You see, all of the suicide bombers, biotoxins, apocalyptic scenarios and Paris Hilton movies cannot rob us of a hope that passes all understanding.
It will not change the ending of the story for those who are in Christ.
There is no need for us to respond violently to those who set themselves against us. The outcome is assured.
“No weapon formed against us shall prosper, all that shall rise up against us shall fall. I will not fear what the devil may bring me, I am a servant of God.”
Earthly empires will rise and fall, but the Kingdom is eternal.
Don’t be afraid of tomorrow. Live today.
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I could go on and on about different virtues (or, Fruits of the Spirit) that, properly nurtured will lead to a non-violent life. But, I think that the point has been made repeatedly that nonviolence is the ideal.
Next week we will move into all of the different what-ifs that people offer as a supposed refutation of nonviolence and how those scenarios, ultimately, are lacking.
10 Responses to “Thoughts on Non-Violence Part 8: Fear”
By Doug Freeman on Oct 26, 2006 | Reply
Scott, regarding your comment on fear being so prevalent and it causes us to give in to worry, I don’t really worry but i tend to be concerned about things that affect our daily lives. I don’t feel that this is a negative thing nor does it intefere with my christian life. Am i wrong feeling this way?
By Scott on Oct 26, 2006 | Reply
Dad, not at all. Worry is the abuse of the godly emotions of care and concern.
I have great care and concern for my children. That is a good thing.
When it becomes a problem is when I allow all of the what-ifs to cloud what is here and now.
By KS on Oct 26, 2006 | Reply
Good blog Scott. I know too often my own perspective is not where it needs to be. The only thing we are commanded to fear is… God.
Wonder why that is?
By Jon on Oct 27, 2006 | Reply
Do we justify our worrying by saying that we are “concerned”?
By KS on Oct 27, 2006 | Reply
Or our gossip about people by saying “bless their hearts, but…”
By Scott on Oct 27, 2006 | Reply
Jon, that’s a great question and often that is exactly what we do. Again, worry focuses on the wrong day: tomorrow.
That’s what worry is: the fear that something bad is going to happen in the future.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t make plans for tomorrow. Of course we do. But we offer them to God for His blue-penciling, so to speak. We do what we can each day and, God willing, we continue on the next. But we keep our focus on today.
By Jon on Oct 27, 2006 | Reply
Being an accountant the worry that I hear the most often is something to the effect of “I am worried about my taxes, or refund, or payments, or etc..” I’m just like look it is what it is, nothing you can do about it now.
By Jon on Oct 27, 2006 | Reply
Kenny -
Didn’t you know that “bless their heart” absolves one of any responibility for libel or slander. Duh?
By JTB on Oct 28, 2006 | Reply
This reminds me of Tillich a bit (yes, yes, the TH 222 readings cropping up again) in that he makes the temptation to sin a consequence of structural, ontological anxiety. Finitude makes us anxious; anxiety motivates us to actualize our freedom in self-preserving ways that deny the reality of our true being in God.
I find this motivation most clearly expressed in the political rhetoric that stresses that it is “our way of life” that is being threatened. The content of that phrase is never spelled out but taken for granted, and I always wonder what it’s actually supposed to mean. But whatever it means, it is obviously something so pure and precious that any threat to it justifies almost any reaction in seeking to preserve it.
By scott on Oct 28, 2006 | Reply
JTB, I can see the resurgence of Tillich’s scholarship becoming more prominent in the coming years. Or maybe I’m just placing more emphasis on the idea of “essence.”
It’s interesting that you bring up “our way of life.” That’s the heart of so much of this current debate. Our standard of livings, our freedoms, are under attack as the rhetoric goes.
It’s us or them, right?
But that just doesn’t square with what we know about the early church. If we were true restorationists we would buy into non-violence a whole lot more, wouldn’t we?