Monday, October 15, 2018
622 - Fear Itself
Spirituality Column #622
October 16 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Fear Itself
By Bob Walters
“Perhaps, after all, it
is Christianity that is sane and all its critics that are mad.” – G.K.
Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Here is a wonderful Chesterton analogy
of Christianity’s unique freedom.
Imagine a
rough-and-tumble yet joyous and passionate community of people playing and
fighting and creating and worshiping and producing and singing and arguing and
learning and laughing and crying and agreeing and disagreeing. The image of an elementary school playground
at recess comes to mind.
Now, put that community of all ages
on a tall, tall butte or mesa – a plateau – with fathomless, deadly,
clouds-in-the-depths cliffs on all sides.
Surrounding the top rim of the plateau is a sturdy, reliable, and
utterly safe wall that provides a divine and unwavering boundary for the
rough-and-tumble proceedings of the population within.
The community is humanity, and the protective
wall is the truth of Jesus Christ. In
this scenario, everybody understands the wall is there, even those who don’t
dwell on the philosophy, theology, or penalty of the cliffs just beyond. So regardless of what anyone thinks (or
doesn’t think) about the wall and the deadly “other side,” the faithful
community thrives joyously, hopefully, and safely with great comfort and trust
in the truth of the protection of that wall.
Life is routinely raucous and messy, but eternally safe because the wall
shelters all from the death of the unknown depths. The boundary accommodates the wise, fools,
and contradictions. It forbids wars, and
produces wars.
Chesterton then describes a second
scenario, the same plateau but without the wall. Instead of protection and freedom within its
boundaries, the deadly maw of certain death surrounds all who might press the
boundaries of a world where the truth of Christ – i.e., the saving wall – does
not exist. Now, the once-lively rough-and-tumble
of freedom within the boundaries becomes the deathly pall of fear and sullen
terror of the abyss. Instead of love,
industry, play, passion, freedom, and bouncing-off-the-wall life within the boundaries,
the fear-stricken population – horrified of the unknown and in the absence of
truth – huddles timidly in the middle of the plateau.
No one dares to venture out; fear
has overcome freedom. Instead of
everyone knowing they are guarded by the wall of God’s merciful, eternal love
through Jesus Christ, they become impotent victims of maniacal dread. The immutable wall of divine truth is
replaced by the capricious opinions and vagaries of the worldly unrighteous.
Written more than 100 years ago,
Chesterton’s Orthodoxy explains why
he personally was compelled to believe Christianity as humanity’s unique and
supreme saving grace. He notes the many,
many differing faces of human morality and industry, but also notes the broad
accommodation of Christian expression within the boundaries of Christian truth,
from the holy silence of monks to the strident voices of martyrs.
Freedom is having barriers we
trust, and playing wildly within them.
Life won’t always look the same, but Christ provides sane truth toward
which we can always look.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com) sorts out politics by discerning which leaders
value the wall (the power of freedom) and which ridicule God’s safety net (the
power of fear).
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