Pause

It’s been election season in the US.
If you live here, enough said.

If you’re not familiar with American politics, particularly in a year in which there are elections across the entire landscape of the American government from the president to local positions, let me just say, it’s a loud mess.

A big part of that mess is rabid fear-mongering.

Throughout this Journey Theme, I’ve shared bits of my experiences in detangling my faith. One desperately twisted-up narrative has been thrown into sharp relief this year: they’re coming for you.

Both spoken and implied within my childhood faith communities, this narrative was always lurking, always shaping the way we viewed and responded to the world around us. Its presence always stemmed from a place of fear.

As I’ve started listening to a wider array of voices and perspectives, I’ve been dismayed to discover this narrative exists across the entire cultural, political, and ideological spectrum. 

If you think for a moment, you’ve probably heard it, too. We can all fill in the blank of the villainous “they” of whom our particular subset of society is afraid, but the narrative is always lurking. Always from a place of fear.

Okay, I promise this study isn’t just about politics; politics is just one space of many in which we find ourselves tangled up in knots over an unknown future.

What will be the outcome of the job change or loss?
The diagnosis that changed everything?
The physical or cognitive decline of a loved one?
A child’s immature or reckless choices?
A relationship spinning endlessly out of control?

Whatever its context, an unknown future often feels scary (and we could spend another whole study digging into how we handle Things We Cannot Control!).

While I don’t want to invalidate the reality of our struggles, I also want to encourage us, in our fear, to run to our strong refuge (Psalm 46), the One whose perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:16-18) The One who promises to be with us as our future unfolds, and the One who calls us to live faithfully today, rather than in a thousand imagined tomorrows. (Matthew 6:25-34)

“When I am afraid, 
I will trust in You.”
(Psalm 56:3)

A Collect for an Unknown (and possibly scary) Future
One in Whom we trust,
our only certain refuge in foreboding days:
guide us along the narrow path
            of releasing the weight of a tomorrow unforeseen and uncontrollable
            while, in the way of wildflowers and sparrows,
            faithfully following our Creator today.
In the encounters You set before us each day,
            may we love You and our neighbors
            inseparably and well
            to the glory of your name,
in the surrendered way of Your Son and through the power of Your Spirit, amen.

Today’s Collect Components
Address: One in Whom we trust,
Doctrine: our only certain refuge in foreboding days,
Petition: guide us along the narrow path
            of releasing the weight of a tomorrow unforeseen and uncontrollable
            while, in the way of wildflowers and sparrows,
            faithfully following our Creator today.
Aspiration: In the encounters You set before us each day,
            may we love You and our neighbors
            inseparably and well
            to the glory of your name,
Mediation: in the surrendered way of Your Son and through the power of Your Spirit, amen.

{*If one of the fears we’ve named is a them rather than a circumstance, we also need to preach the Gospel to ourselves, reminding ourselves we are all sinners in need of a Savior, and Jesus loves and offers redemption to them just as He does us. Then, we need to repent of self-righteously dehumanizing people made in His image, and commit to heeding His call to love them just as we love ourselves. (Matthew 23, Matthew 22:34-40)}