Jeremy L. Berg

“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.”

-Ghandi

“Have a safe trip!” we say as they drive out of the driveway.

“Safe travels!” we say as we drop them off at the airport.

“HAVE A SAFE SUMMER,” the school sign reads as kids leave for summer break.

Such commonplace phrases are just one sign of our cautious culture’s obsession with safety and aversion to risk taking. I started noticing this tendency a while back, and have intentionally trained myself to send my kids off with a different message, “Have a great adventure!” or “Do something awesome today!” instead of “Have a safe time.”

A safe time? Is that our highest aspiration for our kids’ lives? To not get hurt? To play it safe? To avoid risks, and miss out on the epic stories that often only come through stepping outside one’s comfort zone, skinning one’s knees, breaking a bone or two along the way? (I’m having flashbacks to jumping off cliffs into the St. Croix River at Taylor Falls, or climbing that water tower in college in the middle of a snowstorm. Shhh.)

Now, I’m pretty cautious by nature (in many areas of life), but I found my cautious or “responsible” approach to life rudely interrupted in college when I was swept up into a different controlling Story (or worldview) than the one our society is offering us. Its a story that invites us to let go of control, surrender my will to Someone else’s, accept and move toward the brokenness of our world, storm the gates of Hell with the power of God, give up the myth that I can somehow avoid pain and protect my children from suffering by taking every precaution.

Is the point of life merely not dying? Or is it living life to the full (John 10:10) and coming to terms that this life is but a vapor in comparison to the eternal adventure beyond? We’re raising our kids on sanitized PBS Kids television programs where nobody ever gets hurt, whereas the Bible invites us to accept and deal with the R-rated reality outside our windows due to human nature and sin.

Most of my heroes took risks, sacrificed for a greater cause, and had their lives cut short:

Jesus was crucified.

Paul was beheaded.

Peter was crucified upside down.

Bonhoeffer was hanged.

MLK Jr. was shot.

We’re living in the age of helicopter parenting, mandatory bike helmets, waivers and lawsuits, and non-stop tragic news via social media and 24/7 news cycle, and an unhealthy denial of death. This cultural narrative is inducing fear and unhealthy levels of anxiety in many people. And most our fears are irrational in the first place.

We’re afraid to fly in an airplane even though its far safer than driving which we do everyday without a second thought.

We’re afraid to travel to Israel fearing terrorism when we’re more likely to die in our own city.

We think we’re placing our lives in danger going into a bad neighborhood, but its our fast-food diet that’s going to get us in the end.

Our culture (e.g., schools) are worshiping comfort and safety and self-preservation, while Christians are called to deny themselves, take up their cross, follow Jesus into the darkness where we can shine a little light and hope. We’re fleeing the ghettos and taking refuge in suburbia when Jesus is calling his people the other direction (I know, I’m guilty, but God called me here!).

Church leaders also get stuck on the path of least resistance. For example, when we were preparing to plant a church in Mound, I had lunch with a church planting consultant (from another denomination) who told me I was unwise to plant in Mound. He said something like:

“According to my demographic studies and statistical analysis, Mound will not be a fruitful place for growing a church. You’ll have more luck planting in one of the growing outer suburbs where young families are moving and new schools are being built. On my scale of Green-Yellow-Red, where green is good, yellow is difficult but possible, and red is highly unfavorable, I’d give Mound a Red light for planting.

“Red light”? You’ll have “more luck“…? Excuse me sir: you can use your little statistical charts and demographic studies and color coded recommendations for determining where to plant a church. I’m going to keep using the Bible and it tells me the best place to plant a church is where its darkest, most difficult and least likely to bear fruit. Give me the rockiest soil and a sharp spade shovel, and let’s start loosening soil and planting seeds for a radically unconventional, and unsafe Kingdom community.

All of this to set up an new story that was sent my way today. I know there’s strong arguments on both sides, as well as the best of intentions. But I resonated with the gentleman who says, “Maybe we’re not reading the same Bible. There’s “Do Not Fear” all over it.” In fact, its commonly said there’s at least 365 “Fear Nots” in the Bible.

Read this story, and if your gut reaction is to justify and defend the safe position rather than push for bolder faith, perhaps you’re more shaped by our cultural narrative than you realize. Perhaps it’s time to revisit the story Christians are called to inhabit and let shape their lives. In the end, none of us are getting out of here alive; but some may die having never really lived.

Check this out from BleacherReport.com:

The Chicago Hope Academy had a second high school from outside of the city of Chicago forfeit a game rather than travel to the Altgeld Park field, citing safety reasons, according to Matthew Walberg, William Lee and Gregory Pratt of the Chicago Tribune. Bishop McNamara forfeited their game against Hope Academy on Friday night, after Wheaton’s St. Francis High School did the same in early October.

“I don’t want to judge them, but if it were the reverse, we’d come to their place no matter what,” Hope Academy founder Bob Muzikowski told the Chicago Tribune. “Maybe we’re not reading the same Bible. There’s ‘do not fear’ all over it. I said it to both of the heads of (St. Francis and Bishop McNamara)—we had had an opportunity to do something great and they chose not to do it.”

St. Francis chose to forfeit a week after gunfire in the vicinity of Altgeld Park interrupted the game between Hope Academy and Providence Catholic. While Muzikowski noted that the shooting wasn’t directed at Hope Academy students, “Chicago police records show that in 2017, there have been three shootings, one fatal, in the square mile surrounding the field,” per the Chicago Tribune.

Bishop McNamara Principal Terry Granger said that the school spoke with Hope Academy about either hosting the game, playing at a neutral site or moving the game time to either Thursday or Friday afternoon or Saturday morning at Altgeld Park, per the report. The schools couldn’t agree on a neutral site, however, and Muzikowski said he didn’t want to send the wrong message by moving the game.

“If we go down to [Bishop McNamara’s] place, it’s ‘Where you live is good, where we live is bad,'” he noted. “My kids go to Hope. Our Christianity is actually a little radical—we think you should go where it’s bad.”

Hope Academy Principal Alyssa Dons also spoke out against the forfeiture.

“(It) was impactful for the boys because they were really starting to feel like it was their fault: ‘We aren’t like that; why are they afraid of us?'” “People are afraid to go into other neighborhoods, or just two blocks down,” she continued. “Why? There are good people here. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the people in this neighborhood are amazing. But what gets known is that 0.1 percent that causes trouble. That’s not the norm.”

I’ve written elsewhere on this topic in A Non-Anxious Presence in an Anxious World and The Absurdity Driven Life. These posts always rub some people the wrong way because they expose deep seated idolatry: idols of comfort, control, safety, self-preservation, love of our children (yep, they can become idols), and other American gods.

In my college days, I was influenced by the teaching of Erwin McManus on this front in, for example, his book The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within.

“Be strong & courageous. Don’t be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut 31:6).