“Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me,
And I will give you rest.”
Like most people, I have been shaken by the recent events of violence around the world. Bloody scenes of wounded men and women have been brought directly into our home on increasingly larger and sharper HD television screens. It is difficult to comprehend and it shakes our sense of security to the core. It is equally challenging not to respond to these horrific events without fear. Many have chosen to arm themselves and guns sales have hit a new high. Since I can’t see myself buying a gun, I am doing my best to choose to respond with faith and hope.
In a county where people insist on having “In God We Trust” stamped on our coins and including “One nation under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance, we seem to have forgotten that if we indeed believe these things, God should be in charge. Why are we so afraid?
To take this one step further, if we are a majority of Christians in this country, why aren’t we following the words of the Christ? What happened to “Blessed are the peacemakers?” I don’t remember Jesus telling the Apostles to include a knife or sword with them when they went from town to town preaching the Gospel. And from what I’ve read about the Roman occupation, the Holy Land, wasn’t the safest place to be walking around unarmed. And yet they did. They had faith.
So as Christmas approaches, and we prepare our homes to welcome the Christ child, let us also take some time to prepare our hearts as well, to make a place to receive Christ and to try to increase our faith and take those first steps at life in hope and no longer in fear.