He doesn’t know. You know the answer. You want him to know the answer. You know it will […]
Fear
“We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep into our […]
“Great Things are Achieved by Embracing Great Danger” – Xerxes I’d like to pretend that I was sitting […]
We had recently moved into our new house in an unfamiliar place called Davenport. We were doing the […]
This might be the most Adventy of Advent. If there ever was one, this is it, at least […]
The white metal hospital bed looked out of place in the cozy lakeside home. The old man was skin […]
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live […]
I have a difficult time viewing safety as a virtue. Resilience perhaps, fortitude to be sure, but not just safety. I want my kids to be safe, of course. I want them to take reasonable precautions when doing dangerous or risky things. Safety serves the risk; it serves a life marked by danger. It is calculated and reasonably weighed out. But danger, why, danger is the stuff that makes life worth living. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “As soon as there is life, there is danger.” To elevate safety above engagement is a cowardly and timid way to engage this world.
Everyone is up in arms in some way. We all probably have friends on every side who have dug in their heals, marked out their enemy, and are hunkered down at war. Over what? Over whether this whole thing is a hoax or the Black Plague. Or we are up in arms about our neighbor biking without his mask or the government conspiring to rob us of all our rights. I get it.
The people of God were not a people who stood head and shoulders above everyone else. Their title as His chosen ones did not mean they had the best of everything, that they were safe and secure and lived a fat and happy life free from concern, worry and fear. Rather, their history was marked by slavery, oppression, and nomadic wandering with no place to call their home. They were well acquainted with the horrors of war, disease and struggle.