Read Luke 12:1-7

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John‬ ‭4:18‬ ‭CEB‬‬)‬‬‬‬

 My youngest daughter and I have gotten into the show, Supergirl, which airs on Monday nights on CBS. In one of the episodes, Cara Zor-El (aka Supergirl) ends up joining forces with Maxwell Lord who, up until this point, has been one of her enemies. Family members from Cara’s home planet of Krypton, have decided that they are going to take over the earth to save it from human destruction. Their method for doing so is by using some device called the “Myriad” which allows them to have control of all human minds that are within the range of the device.

Using satalites, the myriad literally enslaves the minds of everyone within National City and Supergirl must find away to stop her fellow Kryptonians from doing that to the people of her city. This is where Maxwell Lord comes in. Maxwell is a rich entrepenuer, scientist, and inventor who has invested his life in trying to prevent “aliens” from taking over the world. He fears no aliens can be trusted and that they are all out own the planet. This is, ultimately, what has set him against Supergirl, who herself is an alien. But, you know how the phrase goes, “The enemy of your enemy is your is your friend”. Thus, Maxwell Lord reaches out to Cara in order to ally himself with her and offer his services to her in order to stop the Kryponians from mind-controlling everyone.

While this all sounds good on the surface, Maxwell’s plan is pretty dark and twisted, He plans on making a bomb that contains a significant amount of Kryptonite in it. The idea is that when the bomb explodes, the Kryptonite will be vaporized and in the air, effectively killing off the evil Kryptonians that are turning humans into mindless drones. The only drawback is that, in order to do that, at least 8% of the human population will be killed by the percussion of the explosion. Maxwell’s logic is as follows, it is better that 300,000 or so people die than for all of National City and the world be turned into slaves of the aliens.

Cara Zor-El is left with a crazy choice. She does not think that killing 300,000 people should be an option on the table, and yet Maxwell’s plan seems to be the only one that has any chance in stopping the Kryptonians. The question becomes does she try to take the high road and do what is morally right, possibly risking losing to the Kryptonians? Or, does she act quickly out of fear of what might happen if she doesn’t?

While the show is obviously fiction, it sets up what we face every day in our lives: FEAR and the choices such FEAR presents us. The question is, what do you fear and how does it affect the decisions you make in your life? Do you allow your fears to consume you, do you allow them to cause you to justify what you would otherwise deem morally reprehenisble? In today’s world, where fear runs rampant and rules us like a tyrannical dictator, we find ourselves faced with people pushing some really crazy and scary idealogies. What’s more, many people are willing to toss their good sensibilities and morals aside, for fear of what will happen if they don’t “DO SOMETHING” in order to prevent what they fear from happening.

Christ does not call us to DO SOMETHING, Christ calls us to DO THE RIGHT THING. Christ is calling us to know what we fear, to name those fears, and to put them into check with our faith. If we have faith in God, if we truly have faith, we will do what is right over and above what seems expedient in preventing our fears from coming true. When we let go and we trust in God, then we can conquer our fears and rise above the things our fears dicate we should do. I pray that we all find the truth in this and place our trust in God.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

PRAYER

Lord, help me to name my fears and conquer them with your love. Amen.