Twenty-five years ago today I was building my house in a remote part of the Colorado mountains. The world then was still mostly analog compared with today, but that was true in the extreme where we were putting down roots. It was truly “off grid” in every sense of the phrase. That day, I had spent the morning hours among real things — earth, sun, wind and whatever my hands could find to do — with no overlay of town noises or the insistent awareness of world problems.
Then my partner, Issa, arrived from town, though she had been scheduled to work until evening. I knew something was wrong when I saw her kids in the car, in the middle of a school day. As the dust settled around the car, she told me the news: the World Trade Center buildings had been attacked and destroyed. She rushed to fill in as much detail as she had managed to gather before getting the kids from school and heading home. (She did not want to leave the job of helping the kids process the news to strangers, even professional ones.)
I remember my response well — that this event would serve the purposes of those, on both sides, who wanted war. They would “set the world on fire,” I said. “Nothing will be the same.”
A quarter-century later I see that this conclusion was true and not true all at once. True, the attacks on September 11 launched what we now call “forever wars” across the Middle East and a sweeping new security mindset (and apparatus) at home. The day became a collective psychological threshold dividing our lives into the time before the attacks and after.
And yet, I’m writing this in the house I dreamed and built all those years ago. It still shelters us and contains what our hands can find to do each day. Outside, the earth, sun, wind and rain are utterly unchanged. Oh, the bark beetles have taken a toll on a number of trees, but the granite outcroppings still stand watch, and the wild strawberries still grow in the moist valley.
This is a tale of two worlds and two belief systems. On the anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, both are sending messages — and we have a lot to learn if we’ll listen.
The world of human civilization, for all its breathtaking physical infrastructure, exists mostly in the human mind. Cities and networks of all kinds are only instruments in service of what people value and believe to be true. In that realm, the lesson to be learned from the events of September 11, is exceedingly simple: “Be afraid.”
On the other hand, the opposite choice is offered by the world where the sun rises and sets every day as it always has and the Milky Way never fails to preside over the night sky: “Do not fear. Be still and know that I am God.”
In fact, you don’t have to be a detective to spot a pattern in the stream of signals from the world of human affairs. It boils down to this:
“Always be afraid.”
Every new year brings another looming catastrophe to keep us up at night. These days they seem to pile up faster than that. Widen your view and you can’t miss that 9-11 was just one of a long string of “events” that always pour gas on the perpetual flame of human fear.
Here is a short list covering just my lifetime: Russian invasion and nuclear war, economic collapse (recurring), population overshoot, acid rain, ozone depletion, a new ice age (yes, really), Y2K, global warming and mass extinction, disclosure of aliens among us, pandemic, war with Russia (again), war with the Chinese (or the importation of a Chinese-style surveillance state), fascism! (from all quarters), geoengineering of the sky, AI insurrection. For Christians, the looming apocalypse and fiery destruction of everything drapes over all these.
It’s almost funny to read a list like that — really over the top. That’s especially true when you catch on to what all of these have in common — they never pose the threat or deliver the punch that the powers of the world broadcast. Ever.
Huh. It’s almost as if our fear is the whole point; as if the world could be in the hands of someone or something that for some reason really wants and needs us to be afraid. All the time. About anything, everything. Doesn’t matter, so long as we stay afraid. Fear is the goal and a very high priority, given the effort that goes into creating and maintaining it.
Some people go so far as to claim that human fear is a frequency that’s harvested by demonic powers as an energy source. Other just see perpetual fear as fertile ground for manipulation and control of human society for fun and profit.
Either way, this is unmistakably evil. I think the truth is deeper than either of those two choices. I’ll share how in a moment.
First, all of this shines new light on the other message we mentioned, and which the Bible conveys hundreds of times: “Do not be afraid.”
Most believers see that as a kind of pat on the head and “There, there.” If we’re honest, it can even feel condescending, like God is making light of all the seriously terrifying things we have to deal with.
Turns out, it’s nothing of the sort. “Do not be afraid” is a command in the military sense. It is a strategic pillar of spiritual warfare. How? Because, as I just explained, it deprives the enemy of the one thing they appear to want and need above all else. It is the pivot on which the battle turns. To refuse to be afraid is not passive. It is a purposeful choice we make under fire from everything the enemy can throw at us.
But here is the key to understanding this: The command “Do not be afraid” isn’t given to motivate you to climb out of your foxhole and get into the fight, over there somewhere.
Refusing to be afraid is the fight, right where you are. Your choice between faith and fear is the battle. When you no longer fall for every new reason to fear impending doom all the time, the enemy loses everything. It’s over.
Here’s why: Satan and his minions have no power of their own. They can neither create nor destroy. The reason is simple: They are not made in the image and likeness of God. They are his creations, not his offspring.
We are.
All of Satan’s apparent power is derivative. We are heirs to the throne; he is a regent whose strategy is to rule forever by proxy; that is, by getting us to use on his behalf the power we possess as image-bearers of the Most High God: to manifest what we think and believe as apparent reality in the world.
The Bible is full of references to this truth. Open your eyes and you’ll see them everywhere.
Why is fear so important to this plan? Because it’s not enough for us to simply think something in order to create it; we must feel it to be true, intensely. Fear is the perfect fuel to accomplish this if the world you want to create is the opposite of what God intended for his people.
To refuse to be afraid is to be a warrior, a thorn in the enemy’s side. It is to align ourselves with the victory our Lord Jesus already won.
Want to change the world? Don’t be afraid.
Want to tear down the strongholds of darkness? Don’t be afraid.
Want to experience the fullness of God’s presence and power in your life? Surrender everything to him, trust and …
Don’t. Be. Afraid.