Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Trayvon Martin\u2019s murder.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t seem that long ago and that is partly because it took months for the\u00a0media to actually catch on to the story and call attention to the atrocity it was.\u00a0 In remembering Trayvon Martin\u2019s death as I move through Lent, this season of confession and penance, I have to admit that I am a part of the reality that resulted in the murder of an innocent teen.\u00a0 I say this because as I think this week about what addictions are holding me from embracing God\u2019s love the answer I keep coming back to is fear.<\/p>\n
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I am addicted to fear\u2014it is something I can\u2019t let go of and it fuels fantasies of violence in my mind.\u00a0 My dog barks at the stranger walking down the street and I begin to imagine what I would do if that stranger intruded on my property.\u00a0 It is instinct yes, it is a strong impulse in those deep recesses of the brain.\u00a0 Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker has said that everyone, every human being at one time or another has a fantasy of killing someone.\u00a0 There\u2019s little I agree with Pinker on, but I believe that this point is true.\u00a0 We all have deep, instinctual drives to kill those who threaten us.\u00a0 That\u00a0is the \u201cnatural man\u201d that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 2:14\u2014the person of animal drives that has not been reworked into the image of Christ.<\/p>\n
Of course when I speak of fears they are not abstract.\u00a0 They are, if I am honest, more often than not fears of a black man in a hood.\u00a0 Even though I know with all my rational will that this fear is misplaced. \u00a0I know in my heart that the kid who lives down the street from me and paces the street at night in his hooded jacket is just a regular teenager; that the neighbor who just got out of prison and came over to introduce himself is just trying to get back on his feet and care for his dying mother. Still I have been given a whole host of images from sources as varied as TV to hip-hop that fuel me toward fearing these people to whom I owe love. We cultivate our fears just as we cultivate our lusts.<\/p>\n
Even if the fear is well placed it is not good.\u00a0 Lust does not become blessed if the object is worthy of it; fear is no different.\u00a0 \u201cDo not fear\u201d is one of the most common phrases in scripture.\u00a0 It is only when we move away from fear that we are able to follow in the way of Christ.\u00a0 It is only when we set fear aside that we can move toward peace, not because it will result in less violence, but because we are called to be peaceable as a matter of our faithfulness.<\/p>\n
In Arkansas where I live there was a recent law passed that would allow guns into churches.\u00a0 There were many pastors who spoke out in favor of the bill, speaking of the risks and need in many congregations to have armed security guards.\u00a0 All of this from people who worship a crucified God! \u00a0Followers of a \u00a0Christ who told Peter to put aside the sword because those who live by it, die by it.\u00a0 What would the martyrs of the generations before us think of armed security guarding Christians from violence?\u00a0 We are addicted to fear and we are so blind to the addiction that we do not even know how to confess it.<\/p>\n
I once heard Dallas Willard argue that in Mark 4:35-41 Jesus was able to sleep through the storm not because he knew that God wouldn\u2019t let the ship wreck, but because Jesus was so abandoned to the divine will that he didn\u2019t care about the outcome.\u00a0 This is living without fear at its best.\u00a0 It is this trust, this faith that allows us to show love even to those who would harm us.<\/p>\n
Our nation is involved in many debates that are more about fear than anything else.\u00a0 Christians have a responsibility to confess that we are afraid.\u00a0 We must confess that we have all too often fallen into the culture of fear that demands that we face our fear with a gun, \u201cstanding our ground\u201d against whatever threat we perceive.\u00a0 Forgiven of that fear we should turn and turn again to the God who is love, the God who said and says again, \u201cbe not afraid\u201d whatever the outcome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Trayvon Martin\u2019s murder.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t seem that long ago and that is partly because it took months for the\u00a0media to actually catch on to the story and call attention to the atrocity it was.\u00a0 In remembering Trayvon Martin\u2019s death as I move through Lent, this season of confession […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1112,"featured_media":1190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[262,256,261],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-confession","tag-fear","tag-lent","tag-trayvon-martin"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n