Fear And Trust

"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid, The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation."
(Isaiah 12:2 NIV)

You've heard Lord Acton's famous phrase, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I can name a four-letter word that corrupts more than power. The word is FEAR. Fear corrupts the world, fear corrupts the church, more than power does. Granted, it is not easy to make sense of the "moronific inferno" of contemporary North American culture, to quote Saul Bellow; but whatever tack one takes, we are living in a culture of fear. Our faith communities are especially suffering from fear fever, and are desperately looking for health insurance protection rather than prevention and cure. The two most important words for every one of us to confront are these words: FEAR and TRUST.

- Leonard Sweet in "A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe"