I
remember watching television news reports in 1991 as the nonviolent revolution
took place in the streets of Moscow. Russians who had grown up in
totalitarianism suddenly declared, “We will act as if we are free,” taking to
the streets and staring down tanks. The contrast between the faces of the
leaders inside and the masses outside showed who was really afraid, and who was
really free.
Watching
the newsreels from Red Square on Finnish television, I came up with a new
definition of faith: paranoia in reverse. A truly paranoid person
organizes his or her life around a common perspective of fear. Anything that
happens feeds that fear.
Faith
works in reverse. A faithful person organizes his or her life around a common
perspective of trust, not fear. Despite the apparent chaos of the present
moment, God does reign. Regardless of how I may feel, I truly matter to a God
of love.
What could happen if we in God’s kingdom truly acted as if the words of the apostle John were literally true: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). What if we really started living as if the most-repeated prayer in Christendom has actually been answered—that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven?
