“These days are better than that. Every day I die again and again I’m reborn. Every day I have to find the courage to walk out into the street with arms out, got a love you can’t defeat–neither down nor out, there’s nothing you have that I need.” –U2 “Breathe”

“They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.” Hebrews 11:37-38

I’ve felt this for a little while and the above gave a voice to it. Forgive me for preaching for a second but I got a letter a couple of days ago and I’m fed up. In the past couple of years with being involved with the people and the process of getting Iona my world has been changed for the better, I think. I have the utmost respect and admiration for the staff of America World, the people who work in the Transition Home in Addis Ababa and people like my friend, Robel, who does *alot* for the Kingdom; he is someone I honestly look up to and would aspire to work as hard and is diligently for changing his world for the better. He is just one of many examples of people that we’ve met whose faith, in my opinion, belongs with the people of Hebrews 11 in that they have looked beyond their situation to the larger purpose of what God wants them to do and they are all courageous.

My letter I saw this week was written to, as I could guess, Christians with the sole purpose of casting a specter of fear into the heart of the reader. The letter intended to draw a grand conspiracy by ‘someone’ in the past 40 years with the goal of throwing the United States of America into a communist state. There was speculation that everything from removing prayer from school to a vast left wing conspiracy to enthrone Barack Obama as our new Stalinist dictator.

At the end of a day I have a wonderful family I come home to and three great, large examples of stories of the hope that God has given me. I guess I’m appreciating my situation, but praying for another opportunity to step out into God’s big story again. It’s so easy in our culture to be afraid and to protect and if there’s one thing I left Ethiopia with was a lessened fear of things and a walk with God demands a stepping away from fear and self-protection. Among the things God has given as a gift with parenthood is a glimpse into a world without fear where following God means relying solely on him and not me.

With that said, here’s a short list of things that I “should” (according to some people) be afraid of, but I’m not:

– Old age and a perceived accompanying irrelevance, “Middle age”, retirement
– change
– Barack Obama
– a depression, recession, and the economy.
– Who is in the Supreme Court
– People who make different levels of income than me, look different than me, act different than me, or believe differently.
– People who speak another language
– Muslims
– People from different denominations from within Christianity
– Atheists

I suspect my list could get bigger here and I’m planning on revisiting it, but for now, fear is officially put on notice.