Historians love to designate eras with some defining characteristic: the Iron Age, the Age of Faith, the Age of Englightenment. I wonder if ours will be called the Age of Fear. We’re afraid that we are poisoning the planet, that our political systems are broken, that some bug or other will cause a mass extinction, that artificial intelligence will rebel against homo sapiens, that refugees will devalue our culture, that our weapons of war are powerful enough to destroy whole nations. The list goes on. Then there are our personal fears: sickness, financial ruin, family strife, waxy yellow build up (for those who remember Mary Hartman.) One of my personal fears is that I am not doing enough. The Advent message comes as a consolation: Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God. We (I) must constantly remember that God is in charge and we’re not. We are commissioned to doing what we can, using our gifts, and then leaving outcomes in God’s hands. This requires ongoing effort on our part to surrender our plans into the hand of God.
