Editors note: This is part five of an eight-part series exploring the eight Jesus questions all of us must face, highlighted in Jim Wallis's new book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus (HarperOne), available now. These next eight weeks will help us go deeper than the headlines, to find our way back to Jesus in the midst of this intensive and exhausting news cycle. 

Want to hear this in an audio format instead? We just launched an eight-episode podcast series called Reclaiming Jesus Now that features Allison Trowbridge and William Matthews speaking with Jim Wallis about these questions and their relevance today.

It’s hard to deny that we’re living through a fearful time in the United States and around the world. Political leaders are weaponizing fear to maintain power, turn people against each other, inspire discrimination, and even incite violence. Parents of children of color are afraid every time their children leave the house. I’ll be in Los Angeles this week as I continue my book tour for Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus, and a large number of people in the Latinx community there know and love someone who is undocumented. They live in fear each day that ICE will tear their families apart. Climate change poses an existential threat to civilization, and we see more and more signs of that by the day. One of our events in northern California this week had to be cancelled because of the unprecedented power outages put in place to try and prevent wildfires, which continue to increase in number and severity in recent years. What does it take to confront and overcome such omnipresent and often justifiable fears?

I love what Jesus says over and over again, “Be not afraid,” eight times in the New Testament. When I was a little boy, we were told the story of the disciples in the boat. They’re on the boat and the waves are rocking and rolling, and they’re scared. But then they see Jesus coming, walking on the water, and he says to them, “It is I. Be not afraid.” In other words, “It’s me. I know you're scared. It’s ok. I’m here with you.” So, our Sunday School class was told: “When you’re scared, when you don't know what's going on, let Jesus into your boat and everything will calm down.” In 2nd Timothy, Paul makes a related point: “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (1:7).

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