Posts Tagged: "fear"

It’s In The Approach

A few weeks ago on the first day of our big Seattle snow, I went for a walk with my dog around Lake Wilderness. It was morning, and the park was blanketed with thick snow and a silent hush.

When we walked along the trail near the water’s edge, I noticed the blue heron sitting there. We stopped and watched. The heron didn’t move. I wanted to get a good picture (and maybe some video too), so I began walking slowly closer to the heron. I knew there would be a limit… at some point, the heron would be alarmed at the human and dog invading its territory. We got closer, and paused, then moved again… and again.

As I thought, there was a threshold. When we crossed it, the great heron spread its massive wings and slowly flew away.

This experience makes me think about how we approach the other…

Do we approach others (especially those who are “other-than”) with fear, anger, revulsion, skepticism, and a general sense of dismissiveness?

Do we have a better approach than that? I really hope so.

Franciscan Friar Lester Bach writes about the Christian… Read More

And What Do We Have Here?

I remember years ago hearing leadership guru John Maxwell talking about “Putting a ’10′ on everyone’s head.” He was encouraging us to see people as valuable, worthy of our time and attention.

Then yesterday, I watched the first episode of the newly released Black Mirror (season 3) on Netflix. Black Mirror is often described as a modern day Twilight Zone – giving us creepy glimpses of how technology might lead us down a wrong path. This new episode features Lacie—who appears to be a nice, but too sugary-sweet, fake, an annoyingly earnest woman who seems to be doing everything she can to climb the social-standing ladder.

Quickly, you notice Lacie giving and receiving star-ratings on her smart phone with every in-person human interaction. At first, you assume it’s an app that everyone is using… like Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. But then you begin to realize it’s the actual person who is receiving a score: 0 to 5 based on observation or interaction.

Then you discover the power of these ratings. The lease is up on Lacie’s apartment – so she is looking for a new place to stay. When she finds the perfect place, it is just beyond her reach financially… but the agent tells her there is a discount for people with a 4.5 rating. She asks Lacie what her rating is. Lacie is a 4.2, which is respectable, but not quite upper level. The agent encourages Lacie to work on increasing her rating.

Lacie is focused. She’s handing out 5-star ratings left-and-right to everyone she encounters – hoping they will return the favor. But not everyone does, and her score still hoovers below the upper level. Then, when her flight is cancelled and she can’t make it to an important event (with a bunch of 4.5′s and higher), Lacie cracks. She swears at the desk clerk at the airport. Security comes and docks her rating a full point as punishment for her behavior.

Her world is spiraling down along with her score… her worth, value, opportunity, and social standing.

For a more complete review of this Black Mirror episode, check out this article from The Verge.

lacie from black mirror for post

 

With Halloween right around the corner, I’ve been thinking about all the little characters who will show up on our doorsteps. We open our doors, and survey the group of trick-or-treaters… “And what do we have here?” we ask. “Oh, I see the Hulk. And a scary monster! Is that a police man? And the princess from Frozen… what’s her name?”

We pay attention. We recognize the costumes and affirm the children. “Beautiful. I love it! Wow.” And then we bless them (give them candy).

This kind of attentiveness, or beholding, is powerful.

We are taking the time to see the image they are projecting, the costume they are wearing, and we accept them—as they are. I believe this shouldn’t happen only on October 31. And I believe it shouldn’t only happen with… Read More

At The Crossroad Of Fear

While out on the trail around Lake Wilderness yesterday, I was listening to a Fr. Richard Rohr homily. He said something that hit me like a beam of light…

“Are there any other emotions in our country besides anger and fear?”

He went on to say that anger and fear are bottom-of-the-barrel motivators. Yes! I believe this. And I believe there is a better and more beautiful way—a way that is pure and holy and life-giving.

Politicians speak to our fears. That’s how they get our attention. I mean, think about it… really.

They speak to our fears and we listen. They tell us who to blame (the other party and their policies, other nations, other religions, certain groups of people, the “other”).

Having someone to blame converts our fear into something else: anger, hostility, outrage, hatred.

Of course, we all face fear. This is unavoidable. It is our reality.

It is a crossroad. And there is a choice to be made.

I can choose to go… Read More

Invested In Fear by Jason Wiedel

from Jason Wiedel’s blog

I have noticed that there is always something for Christians to fear.

At least that is what they tell us. When I was a kid it was Satanism, Dungeons & Dragons, heavy metal music and anything with a whiff of the occult. The teenagers of the 80′s who ignored the warnings eventually got jobs, had families, and (for the most part) became contributors to society. They didn’t become devil worshipers or serial killers.

The kids who watched Fern Gully and Captain Planet in the 90′s didn’t become hippies and pagans. The kids who read Harry Potter didn’t take up witchcraft. The teens who went to see the Twilight movies did not take up drinking blood.

The bar code did not become the mark of the beast.

The Soviet Union never started World War III. Bill Clinton never tried to make Christianity illegal. And the United Nations has never attempted to reduce the surplus population.

Feminism has not led to the extinction of men. Belief in evolution has not led to a second holocaust. Gay marriage has not destroyed the sanctity of heterosexual marriage.

Yes, there were Christians who were promoting every single one of those fears, and even though none of the things we have been told to fear have… Read More

No Strength From Fear

Towards the end of Brideshead Revisited, Charles Ryder talks to the doctor who is attending Lord Marchmain – who is on the verge of dying…

“He’s got a marvelous will to live, hasn’t he?”

The doctor says, “Would you put it like that? I should say a great fear of death.”

“Is there a difference?” Charles … Read More

Your Place At The Table Is Saved & It Is Safe

I don’t know what the vision statement of the church I grew up in was, but if I were to guess based on the rapture movies they used to show, it’d be something like:

We exist to scare the hell out of everyone.

Yes, I had nightmares about missing the rapture, heads being chopped off, accidentally getting the mark of the beast, and a variety of other apocalyptic terrors.

And there were a number of times when, coming home from school and finding no evidence of family members, I’d panic and assume the worst: I had missed the rapture. For the next few minutes (until my mom came back from visiting with a friend), I’d frantically devise my ridiculous escape and survival plan… Read More