“Fear has two meanings: forget everything and run or face everything and rise. The choice is yours.”
While reading articles and facebook comments on how most Americans are against taking in Syrian refugees, or how they are for banning all Muslim travel to the U.S., or thinking about maybe just letting the “Christians” who are being prosecuted in, it triggered something in me.
Then I continued to read further about how some Christians are even against taking in refugees, and it spiraled into a huge debate over what it means to be a Christian. While reading this all I think to myself is, “No, this should not even be a matter of Christianity, you don’t have to claim a religion to have basic human empathy and compassion. “
The beautiful thing about the past is that it is available to look back upon, to reflect over, to learn and grow from. Yet throughout the history of the world we see the same mistakes repeated over and over again, and even then the cycle still continues to go on.
Fear is a powerful motivator. People fear the things they don’t understand, they fear the things that they cannot control.
Sometimes in fear people fail to remember the simplest of things.
These are people, just like you and me, who are in need. If nothing else, there is that simple fact that they are human beings seeking refuge. Do we punish an entire religious group, an entire ethnicity, an entire race, for the choices of certain harmful individuals? No.
We let those individuals win when we let them make us fear. They win when we throw compassion, love, and empathy out the window and replace them with prejudice, hate, and anger because we are afraid.
Ignorance stems from failing to consider a situation from all sides, for instance, considering if the tables were turned around.
What if this was us? What if this happened in America and other countries refused to let us in or help us because of what? Fear? Can you imagine being a parent who just fled from the threats, for the lives of yourself and your children, only to be rejected because people fear you!? That they put you in the same category as the very thing you are afraid of and fleeing from?
Do you fear the families who have just left everything behind? Who have nothing, no food, no clothes, no future, no places to live? Imagine dropping your entire life at this very moment.
Do you fear the people who stare at you in airports and assume that because of your skin color or religion that qualifies you as a murderer or terrorist?
It is almost a little absurd that we are the fearful ones.
If you read the heartbreaking stories about the situations in the refugee camps and think we should do nothing, or are rude and mistreat people here in America because of how they look, or if you think we should even posses the ability to turn away a specific religious group from entering this country, out of love I would go so far as to say some serious self reflection is probably over due.
I think about what it is that people are afraid of the most… is it death? When something like a terrorist attack happens, naturally people go into panic mode, they start trying to control things they ultimately have no control over. The reality is that when it is our time we will all die some day, and if in that fear we just stand by and do nothing while watching others suffer, if we tolerate the injustice of rejecting or “banning” others, that is letting them win.
We cannot let fear keep us from love!
Do you ever read those “faith in humanity restored” stories, and your heart just melts because when you read them you realize there is still good left in this world?
What if we lived in a world where those acts of kindness were not so surprising! Where you are just so overflowing with God’s love that it pours over onto everyone you come into contact with?
It is human nature to see any huge injustice and think there is nothing that you can do about it, that you don’t have the funds, time, power, or influence. People have stopped believing that they have the ability to make a difference, but they do! God wants us to be warriors for him!
So let us be courageous, let us step outside our comfort zones, let us spread truth and hope, and let us love the people who have been put in our paths!
