"It was like hell,"
said an eyewitness to the Istanbul airport attacks. "It looked like a disaster movie," said another.
As you watch the continuing covering of the tragedy in Turkey, what do
you feel? Grief for those who are in shock and mourning? Anger at the
deluded murderers who slaughtered innocent people in the service of an
ideology that is a lie from hell? I share your pain and outrage.
But there's an unstated realization in the back of our minds as well: we
know we could be next. If terrorists could kill Muslims in Turkey and
Americans in Boston and San Bernardino and Orlando, they can strike
anywhere. This is something new and insidious for us.
I recently saw
Free State of Jones, a film portraying an
uprising against Confederate hostilities in Mississippi. I had not
realized the degree to which innocent civilians were brutalized during
the Civil War, many by troops on their side of the conflict. During
World War II, artillery was stationed along the West Coast to combat a
possible Japanese invasion, but few Americans worried that foreign
soldiers would attack them as they went about their daily lives.
Now for the first time, we live in the knowledge that the next airport
bombing or workplace terrorism attack could find us. How should we
respond to this reality?
Some choose fiction. They deny the reality of their mortality and refuse to think about death and the beyond. A recent poll
asked
unchurched Americans how often they thought about whether they would go
to heaven when they die. Only eighteen percent said they consider their
eternal destination daily or even weekly. But denying mortality, like
denying you have cancer, doesn't make its reality less real.
I was listening to sports talk radio this week and heard a conversation
regarding the death of NFL coach Buddy Ryan. His twin sons Rex and Rob
are coaching on the same NFL team for the first time, but he didn't live
long enough to see their first game. One radio commentator stated,
"Wherever he is, he's watching them."
However, our personal opinion about the afterlife doesn't affect eternal
reality. Fiction doesn't change facts: "The earth will wear out like a
garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner" (Isaiah
51:6). We must all die and then face judgment before Almighty God
(Hebrews 9:27).
Others choose fear. The Istanbul attacks are expected to decimate the
Turkish economy as tourists stay away. This is the very thing ISIS
wants. Terrorists terrorize. They want us to stay home, to live in
trepidation, to fear their next move. Many "fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy"
(Isaiah 51:13).
Our Lord wants us to reject fiction and fear for faith: "I am the LORD
your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of hosts
is his name" (v. 15). If we turn fear into prayer, "the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).
In a time of fiction and fear, faith is our greatest witness. And it is
our best response to those who would terrorize our world: "Oh, taste and
see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!"
(Psalm 34:8).
Let's choose to be blessed today.
Note: for more on finding God's truth in a word filled with deception, please see my
Benghazi report: can you trust the media?
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