After a little over a month in this city I can report that it no longer scares me. I become use to being anonymous on the street, I can navigate the max and buses pretty well, and yet the fact that there are countless other souls like mine twenty miles in every direction is still enchanting. It's very interesting to me that so many people could live such separated lives - or maybe its that I've never know humanity at such a scale, its a little overwhelming.
I'm really quite embarrassed at the fear I had for this place. I rode the max with a few ladies from the college the other day and was surprised at the tense looks on their faces when a group of thugs or a group of street kids would step on. The spirit of fear was alive in those white suburban faces.
Fear is easy, it's easier than love. It's easier to fear the beggar than to talk with him. It's easy to dismiss his act of remorse and his rambling about God and overlook that he is still of value.
It easy to fear what he'll ask of me, how me might burn me, instead of striving, with the wisdsom and love my Messiah gives me, to learn how to bless him.
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Matt. 10:28
Grace and Peace.
