Have you built your underground bunker yet?<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t wait too long. If hurricanes and earthquakes don\u2019t get you, terrorists and North Korean nukes might — not to mention lone gunmen randomly spraying bullets. We live in fearful times.<\/p>\n
My bunker question isn\u2019t entirely facetious. The survivalist movement, which has been around since Cold War days, has morphed into the trendier \u201cprepper\u201d movement. There was even a cable TV show about it (\u201cDoomsday Preppers\u201d).<\/p>\n
Suburban moms anxious about the apocalypse seem to embrace the \u201cprepper\u201d moniker better than \u201csurvivalist,\u201d which evokes images of wild-eyed, bearded guys in camo gear running around in the woods. \u201cPrepper\u201d moms can stock freeze-dried food and water in their safe rooms at home without feeling weird. A whole retail niche has developed around the trend. Costco, for example, offers a one-year emergency food kit. Price: $1,000, shipping included. Be prepared to eat a lot of granola, canned vegetables and canned fruit.<\/p>\n
\u201cLurking beneath our well-socialized exteriors is an intense, primitive need to protect ourselves and those around us from existential threats,\u201d Andrea Palpant Dilley writes in \u201cConfessions of a Christian Prepper,\u201d a recent article in Christianity Today. \u201cOne way or another, we all have to contend with the fundamental tension between readiness and relinquishment: When do we accept our mortality, when do we fight against it, and when do we give it up to God\u2019s providence?\u201d<\/p>\n
To prep or not to prep — that is the question. Surrendering to God\u2019s providence, customary in past generations when death visited more frequently, seems quaint in our day. We want to eliminate all threats, real or imagined.<\/p>\n
This, at least in part, drives the relentless campaign to create \u201csafe spaces\u201d on college campuses and \u201cprotect\u201d students from \u201cdangerous speech.\u201d Four in 10 American millennials (ages 18-34) now think the government should be able to regulate offensive speech, according to the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n
So much for the First Amendment. If we fear mere words that much, how deeply do we fear actions?<\/p>\n
Not only do parents want to protect their kids from any potential danger, we demand that social institutions do the same for the rest of us, to the point of absurdity. There are plenty of real victims in our society, but a generalized culture of grievance and victimhood enables everyone to feel offended by — and fearful of — just about everyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cFear, in all its forms, is at the heart of these issues — fear of failure, ridicule, discomfort, ostracism, uncertainty,\u201d psychologist Clay Routledge writes in The New York Times . \u201cOf course, these fears haunt all of us, regardless of demographics. But that is precisely the point: Our culture isn\u2019t preparing young people to grapple with what are ultimately unavoidable threats. Indeed, despite growing up in a physically safer and kinder society than past generations did, young Americans today report higher levels of anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why this nameless fear?<\/p>\n
There are many causes: rapid change, loss of trust in traditional authorities, economic uncertainty, seemingly endless acts of violence and terrorism — magnified by 24\/7 media. We are all susceptible to it.<\/p>\n
But if there is any place that should be immune to fear, it is the heart of a Christian believer.<\/p>\n
Do not fear, the Lord tells us — again and again, from Genesis to Revelation. His will shall be done. His Spirit shall lead us to victory. His glory shall be revealed. His presence shall comfort and protect us, no matter how terrible things seem. His purpose shall be fulfilled. Only be \u201cstrong and courageous,\u201d He repeatedly commands the fearful Israelites as they venture into an enemy-filled Promised Land (see the Book of Joshua).<\/p>\n
\u201cFor God has not given us a spirit of timidity,\u201d the apostle Paul tells his young disciple Timothy, \u201cbut of power and love and discipline\u201d (2 Timothy 1:7, NASB).<\/p>\n
Yet many evangelical churches seem fearful these days. Fear of being overwhelmed by a hostile culture. Fear of losing liberty. Fear of outsiders and enemies, real or imagined. Fear of immigrants and refugees — the very people we should be welcoming and evangelizing in an age of unprecedented global migration.<\/p>\n
Build a wall, the alarmists say — around our borders, our culture, our churches. Retreat into tribal enclaves. Even if some sort of Christian \u201cFortress America\u201d were possible, is it what God intends? What about going to the nations, including the nations among us?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sluggard says, \u2018There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!\u2019\u201d (Proverbs 22:13, NASB). Fear is a convenient cover for laziness, disobedience and distrust of God.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite frankly, I don\u2019t always trust God to provide,\u201d Dilley, the prepper mom, admits. \u201cI believe in the power of evil to overcome, and I\u2019m determined to do everything I can to fend it off on my own…. [But] I\u2019m called to pivot outward, toward my neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who are our neighbors? Do we fear them — or love them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you built your underground bunker yet? Don\u2019t wait too long. If hurricanes and earthquakes don\u2019t get you, terrorists and North Korean nukes might — not to mention lone gunmen randomly spraying bullets. We live in fearful times. My bunker question isn\u2019t entirely facetious. The survivalist movement, which has been around since Cold War days, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[518,2287,613,453,2474,608,728,3436,1617,1956,1067,5561,5562],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}