The Sky is Falling....!

During our Group 3:16 meeting last Wednesday we talked about worry and fear and how neither one can add a single minute to our lives.  We looked at some of what Jesus has to say about fear and how he doesn't want our limited energy going into worry and fear because the vast majority of what we worry about never comes true.  I told the kids that it isn't possible to not worry at all, and God isn't telling us to stop worrying completely because that isn't possible.  What God wants us to do is to take our worries to Him and to talk to him about or fears and worries.  In doing so we'll let God help us with our fear and tap into the Spirit's vast power.  

After the big group we broke into smaller groups and I asked my group what their biggest fear was.  Want to guess at their response?  Nope, not grades, not girls, not pimples...Ebola.  Their biggest fear was contracting Ebola.  I told them their lives must be going pretty good if they're concerned with contracting a disease that is pretty hard to catch.  Then, and I don't know if this was helpful or not, I told them if they want to worry about a disease worry about influenza.  If we really need something to worry about, they say, worry about getting your flu shots. From 1976 through 2007, flu-related causes killed between 3,000 and 49,000 people in the U.S.  From CNN website.

The hysteria around Ebola continues to amaze me.  I feel for the families that have been stricken with this disease, but the level of worry and speculation and downright hysteria that has come with this disease amazes me.  I wonder why.  Why do we jump to such hysteria?  Why do we spend any time worrying about a disease that many, if not all, of us will never deal with.  I understand it's possible, and by possible I mean in the same ballpark as the Vikings winning a Superbowl possible, the disease could mutate and things could get much worse.  Heck any disease I suppose could mutate and we could all be infected, but is that something to worry about?  Can we do anything to control it?

Fear comes from misunderstanding and not understanding something.  We fear what we don't understand and unfortunately that fear generally leads to dumb decisions and anger.  When we let fear control our lives we are demonstrating that we truly don't trust God.  If we live in fear then we don't truly believe that God is in control.  As I said above we can't not worry completely, and we can't live without any fear.  What we can do is not allow that worry and fear to rule our lives.  We can talk to God about our fear and let God work through us to help us address that fear and work through it.  Don't let worry and fear keep you from experiencing God.