But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them. – Psalm 53:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 24, 2016): Psalm 53

“In life, fear is your worst enemy. Risk is your best friend.” The words belong to entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal. And while he is speaking primarily about business, he is right about the whole of life. If I was to listen to some, including some of my friends, the battle for the world is being fought just outside my office door. Repeatedly they want to tell me about the terrorist cells that are in operation in the very city in which I live. In fear they want me to close out anything that I don’t understand and join them in the fight against the terrorist of the week. They are wrong. Fear leads us to precisely the wrong action.

The truth is that the Islamic State and other similar groups flourish not because they live by a different religious ideology, but rather because they have never really become a part of our social reality. In fear we have kept them at arm’s length, and that is precisely the wrong thing to do. Fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It makes everything that they believe true and keeps them playing the role of outcasts in our society. And outcasts have nothing to lose.

On the other hand, risk removes the them and makes them ‘us.’ Oh, yes, ‘us’ with a different ideological framework and belief system, but ‘us’ never the less. And the threat of terror is removed. When every fiber of our being tells us that in fear we should keep those who are not like us away from us and our family and friends, risk says that we need to welcome them into our midst. Wrap our arms around them and tell them that they are important to us. And it isn’t just with terrorists that this is important. Almost every schoolyard shooting over the past few years, I believe, could have been stopped by a message that somebody cares. That you are not them, you are us.

We don’t know the situation behind the words of Psalm 53, but the effects of the situation are clear. Fear is the problem, and it is fear when there is really nothing to fear. In the end, we have the assurance that God will win. In the meantime, we have the responsibility to love, and to shape the world in which we live with that love. And yes, it is a risk. But it is definitely one worth taking – and it will shatter the effects of fear in our culture. And something that shatters fears is exactly what we need.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 58