We are a people that are very afraid. For many reasons, we have become a people who are very afraid . . but a person is different than a people.
Individually, we are challenged to ask ourselves if our decisions, actions and beliefs reflect what we might lose or how we could be punished as a result of the choices we make; or what we might gain?
One is fear; the other is hope.
By now we know, fear is easier – more tempting – than hope. Our collective fear is overwhelming. I see it in religion as people sit in pews more often because they are, at the end of the day, afraid of going to Hell; no matter how much they are reminded that our reason for going is actually to practice for Heaven. I see it in our politics as we, more often than not, vote against something or someone more than we do for someone.
Similarly, I find that we can talk about our mistakes much more readily than we can talk about our successes. We can talk about our sins much more easily than our gifts. We can talk about who and what we are afraid of in an instant, but struggle to articulate in who and where we put our trust.
We can talk about who and what we are afraid of in an instant, but struggle to articulate in who and where we put our trust.
I used to tell church congregations that I really wanted two confessionals in every church. The first one would be for “confessing” your giftedness, blessings and trusts. The second would be used only after the first so that then you could articulate your mistakes based on how did, and did not, use your gifts and live with trust – rather than some idea of a mistake that you don’t consider as such.
It is not “what do you have to lose”, but what might you gain, win, or be possible?
Can we see that the world is not a bad place? That creation is not sinful or fallen? Can we see that the world is created and thus can only be good. If so, then we can put our trust in our goodness, long before we allow ourselves to be afraid of our brokenness.