I was sitting in a Burger King this evening when an employee started yelling, “No, no. Please no.” My imagination immediately created the worst possible scenario. I was ready to run for an exit or hide under a table as I imagined someone had entered with a gun. What a relief to know it wasn’t what I thought. A bus had pulled up to the door and offloaded forty-six teenage girls who then lined up at the order counter. The financial boon for Burger King meant a whole lot of work for the three employees behind the counter who were contending with a never-ending line of cars at the drive-up window.
So I wondered why it was that my mind had first gone to something bad. Could it be that we have developed a culture of fear because of all the bad news we continually hear on our radios and televisions? Twenty-four hour news channels have a voracious appetite for content. In order to stay fresh they garner all the bad stories that occur all over the world and frighten us into thinking our neighborhoods are filled with all the gruesomeness they can dish up. Organizations with a need for government or charitable funding hype their cause and exaggerate so they can maintain their existence. The end result is we have come to believe the worst.
I would like to state that while it is true some places in the world are racked by war, famine and genocide, that is not the norm. The norm is so much better. I don’t want to be a Pollyanna but if we really believe we are under the shadow of the Almighty we can truly say to each other, “Fear not.”
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 15, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org