fear control

Sunday July 22^nd, Psalm 23: He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod; your staff, they comfort me.  There are many divisions in our hearts and in the world.  If we look deep enough there is some person or some group that falls into our spectrum of somewhere between dislike to greatly fear.  Dislike we can usually deal with most of the time.  But it is fear that can and often does turn into hostility such as we are just extricating ourselves from after years and years in the Mideast.  Even at home we have an upcoming political race in which the rhetoric is largely driven by fear, because fear is a great motivator as well as a great cover-up.  Look over there at the voter fraud as we make it harder to vote knocking hundreds of thousands off the voter rolls.  In Florida alone less than 10 possible voter fraud cases has been blown into the case to drop over 180,000 off the voter rolls.  Look at the poor people living off the state as we change the tax code so the wealthiest and largest corporations can pay the lowest taxes in history and benefit the most from government programs.  When someone says, look over there, it is usually a call to look at what they are doing.   Before any war, there is a heightened sense of fear, it is what allows basically good people to justify killing of others.  Before any election there is often a heightened sense of fear that compels basically good people to justify voting for really bad ideas.  Into this mess we have created we hear the words that even though I go through the darkest deepest places in life, I will fear no evil for God is with me.  God did not come to bring fear, but peace.  Don’t give into the fear mongers who are only out for control and remember that as God’s presence came into the world, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the world, heard the words, fear not, for behold I bring you Good New of Great Joy.  Fear Not.