Even close relatives like “awe” and “reverence” don’t quite capture the passionate intensity of trembling in the presence of a holy God. American culture is full of fear. Although our country is profoundly polarized, the fact of fear and its driving and entrenching power unites us. The objects of our fears differ: We may be most afraid of the proliferation of gross injustice or of the government infringing on our personal liberties. We may fear persecution or the loss of the church’s witness through compromising political allegiances. Many of us fear losing our income or, worse, losing a loved one…
Fighting fear is like muscle memory: The more you fight, the more and better you will fight. But what does fighting fear look like in a practical sense? Here are 10 thoughts: Acknowledge reality. In Psalm 56:3, David writes, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Not if, but when. A great (and freeing) place to start when you’re afraid is to acknowledge that fear is a universal human reality. Since we live in a world corrupted by sin and full of suffering, we are guaranteed to encounter what is fearful. So, it isn’t always wrong to…
Jesus’ unnatural resurrection helps us fear not. Empty churches on Easter Sunday around the world represent an image that, until this year, would have made sense only in a fever-pitched 1990s end-times novel. Yet, in the middle of a global pandemic, that will now be our reality. The grief that Christians already face over missing their church services for necessary social distancing will intensify when it comes to the preeminent day on the Christian calendar. But if we pay attention, we may see something new and holy about Easter in quarantine. And that something is fear. At first glance, fear…
By Jennifer Allwood Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. —Deuteronomy 31:6 We all like safe. It’s human nature to avoid hard things, and our normal tendency is to drift toward the safe thing in order to protect ourselves. I mean, who honestly likes to be scared? Women especially like “safe.” Women who have gone through hard things will almost always choose safe, because for the love of all things holy, they don’t want to go back to…
Before the coronavirus hit, conservative Protestant churchgoers were least concerned about a future pandemic. The biggest debate on social media this weekend has been over the appropriate level of concern for a significant, long-term disruption of daily activities because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The disagreement skews partisan, with new surveys showing Republicans are far less likely than Democrats to fear the coronavirus outbreak in the US. In recent years, Americans across religious traditions have become more worried about the potential for a major epidemic, the kind of hypothetical question that has become all too real in the past few weeks….
As I write this post, major news organizations are reporting the global spread of the Coronavirus with what seems like fear and an increase in alarm compared to just yesterday. The media is broadcasting fears regarding the predicted negative effect on the global economy, the apparent misinformation about numbers of cases, the complex issues concerning everything from vaccination to mitigation. The simple fact is that people are afraid and for a very real reason. Pandemics like this and the Ebola crisis before it are difficult to contain. They remind us how small we are. But, though the reason for fear…
By Jess Connolly God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. — Psalm 46:1–3 (NIV) What if the circumstances we fear the most are the ones that will afford us the most abundance? What if loss and failure are supposed to be the cornerstones of our testimony? Like Moses, rock bottom is my origin story. But this isn’t a sob story, it’s my song…
An evangelical historian searches for the roots of Trump-friendly evangelicalism. John Fea has two intended audiences for his new book, Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. On the one hand, he dedicates this book “to the 19 percent”—to the segment of white evangelicals who (at least according to exit poll data) voted against Trump in the presidential race. But in another sense, Fea is also writing to the remaining 81 percent, to those who decided that Trump could best advance the cause of Christianity in America. Fea writes as both a historian (he teaches at Messiah College) and…
