As someone with asthma and a few autoimmune disorders who also pastors people in Renovation Community with Liver Failure, Diabetes, asthma, and COPD, I understand the fear about this virus, the fear of contracting or spreading it, the fear healthcare workers have of more outbreaks, and the fear of ‘re-opening’ too soon.
But as someone committed to serving the lowest-income families in our community —people without cars, working shifts that get cut when business is slow, who go from one Temp job to the next, in industries that don’t have a ‘telecommute’ option— I also understand the fear of continued economic uncertainty, the fear of another month’s unpaid rent or car payment.
As someone who often reads biographies of persecuted Christians throughout history who lived under governments with ever-increasing economic and religious restrictions, I can even understand the fears of those protesting our potential loss in civic liberties.
I’ve learned Fear is a tricky emotion. At times, it’s the most rational response our brains can make. Other times, however, we irrationally fear what we shouldn’t.
But I’ve also learned it’s incredibly easy to belittle someone else’s fears while validating our own. Isn’t it interesting how we view our own fears as “rational” while others’ as “crazy?”
We can always find reasons why “those people” shouldn’t be afraid. That is…if their fear is not our fear. And, of course, we can find an equal amount of reasons why our fear is the only logical emotion one should feel.
True…”perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). But Love is also ‘patient, kind, doesn’t dishonor others, is not easily angered [even at others’ fears], and keeps no records of wrongs’ (1 Corinthians 13).
How should I love someone who fears what I do not? Probably the same way God loves Humanity, who fears everything He does not…with grace, patience, mercy, and respectful truth.
God is a Lover of the Afraid.
If we belittle or demonize those who fear what we do not, we aren’t loving others the way God loves us.
