Fear itself
How do we deal with terrorism? For centuries, philosophers, preachers and politicians alike have all realized that our greatest enemies are not those who inflict pain, but those who inflict fear. Fear itself is our greatest enemy. Terrorism is the worst possible kind of act we can perpetrate against other human beings – not because the kinds of things terrorists do, for whatever reason, but because of what their acts inspire: Terror.
For instance, no matter how loudly and often we say we will not let the terrorists win, have we not let them win already? For instance, let your mind take you back to a plane flight you took before 9/11. In your mind, wander through the airport and notice what you see… or what you DON’T see. Fear, nervous people looking over their shoulders at someone with dark skin or wearing robes. So many security checks and measures that we actually utter a sigh of relief when we get strapped in and listen to the safety demonstration given by the flight attendants (who’d have every thought we’d be relieved to hear THAT?).
Where will it end? At each point in your imaginary wandering through the pre-9/11 airport, you can probably remember when and why they had to put those measures in place. Remember when they put in those huge TSA bag scanners? Remember when they started taking scissors, knives and nail clippers away? Remember when you had to start taking off your shoes? Remember when you had to dump all your makeup and water bottles in a big bin at the front of the security line?
I joke with people these days and say, “Before long, some terrorist will find a way to weave a bomb into his clothes, and we’ll all have to get on the plane naked.” But funny as that may seem, most of us only give a nervous little chuckle as we think, “You know, I wonder if that really COULD happen…”
We can’t defeat terrorism by trying to make sure we can filter out every kind of bomb they can make. There will always be a newer way, a way that will make us all shudder when we find out how close we came.
No, we can only defeat terror by not being afraid. All through the Bible, we see angels and other messengers of God saying, “be not afraid,” and we have to wonder whether there’s a message there for us, too. A fellow minister and mentor once taught me something I still have to remind myself to this day: “The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is fear.” Do we have enough faith to “be not afraid?”
Seems so easy to relegate the fight against terrorism to the folks behind the scanner at the airport, or the soldiers overseas. But the real fight, the one that matters, takes place in your soul and in mine.
So what then do we do with the fear of God? What is the difference? Is there not a place when fear is a good thing?
I think what’s needed is a new understanding of what the Hebrew writers meant when they used “fear.” I think that kind of fear means more “respect” and “honor” than “cower and run.”
I may “fear” spiders – may even have arachnophobia (I don’t really, just an example). And that is s fear that makes me run. I also “fear” the great mountains like the Alps and the Rockies. I grew up in a place where “mountain” means “big hill,” so to see mountains so tall that trees stop growing near the top, is quite a humbling and “fearful” experience for me.
Now, I don’t turn tail and run when I see the mountains at a distance. I drive closer. Neither do I drive to the top and run out over the steep cliffs. I have a healthy respect of the mountain – I’ve been caught in a storm up on one, and don’t want to live through that again.
My fear of the mountains is the kind of fear that draws me closer – wonder, awe, aodration. It’s the kind of fear that makes me be careaful – those mountains are dangerous, and they’re a LOT bigger than me. Do we have that kind of God? Or is he just our good buddy?
My fear of spiders is the kind of fear we’re admonished not to have. After all, if the shepherds had such a fright from seeing the angels that they took off across the countryside, they would not have been the first to hear the Gospel. “Fear not – don’t run away, don’t be so sccared that you miss what is here.”
Are we so afraid of God that we miss what’s in store for us? Are we so busy trying to walk on eggshells around the “holy and righteous judge” who’s just waiting to zap us if we mess up, that we miss out on a real relationship with us?
We can live in respectful fear, without cowering from every threat.