I'll
be honest. I am not scared, I am terrified. This world is a scary place. Any
time you turn on the news it's a terrorist attack, a gunman killing innocent
people in a school, or "protesters" angry about something that isn't
going their way. It has got to the point where if I hear planes outside my
bedroom window, I ask myself, is that the military? Should I be concerned? Do I
need to go buy lots of water and food in case one day I can't leave my house?
When I have kids, should I home school them? It’s a never ending battle of
questions I ask myself every day. Honestly, I feel like it is very natural to
be scared. But I have to remind myself everyday of a very popular bible verse, “even
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Palms
23:4)"
The popular
topic right now is whether or not to let in Syrian refugees. It's a hard pill
to swallow, after all of the recent attacks, you're mad, you're angry, it is easy
to say we must protect ourselves and close the borders. I have thought it. I
have cried about it, cussed about it, and been very hateful about it. I then
remind myself we are all human beings, no matter where each of us may live,
what skin color we have, what religion we choose to follow, we are all the same
in that, we are all humans. In the moment, when an attack is made my first
reaction is hate, but that is exactly what a terrorist wants. Terrorists want
everyone to hate everyone, they want everyone to live their lives in fear. They
want a war. I have caught myself on many occasions saying we need to get rid of
those 'Muslims.' ISIS is not Muslim, Muslims are not terrorists. I don't have
the same beliefs as you or worship the same God as you but I still love you,
because that is what Jesus would do. My point being is we can't let fear
dictate our actions. When fear leads you, your heart is consumed with hate. We
have to remember anyone can be a terrorist. Any religion, color of the skin,
man or woman, adult or child, anyone. In the bible it says for so God so loved
the World, nowhere in the scripture does it say For God so loved the United
States. But then here is the other side of the argument, Muslims may not be
terrorists and these refugees may be going through hell and back and are
fleeing for their lives but how many people would change their mind on letting
them into our country if your mom or friend got killed by an ISIS member who
was posing as a refugee? There is also the popular argument of how about we fix
America before we try to fix other countries? Why is it our responsibility to
find homes for 10,000 Syrian/Muslim refugees but we can't help our own homeless which a majority are
veterans? I trust Muslims but I do not trust ISIS, why are we not sending them
all to hell? Here is my point, there are 1.2 billion Muslims in the World
today, OF COURSE they are not ALL radicals, the radicals are estimated to be
between 15 and 25 percent of that 1.2 billion. So yes, the majority are very peaceful people, but that small percent, that teeny percent is dedicated to destroy
western civilization. So why am I worried if this small percentage are the only
bad guys? Because it is the radicals that kill, it is the radicals that behead
and massacre, it is the radicals that want you and I dead. If you go back and
look at history, Germans were peaceful people but look at what the small
percentage of Nazis did. At this point, the peaceful majority is irrelevant
when the radicals are the people who are driving the agenda. Let's not forget
what happened on September 11, 2001; we had 2.3 million Arab Muslims living in
the United States but it only took 19 radicals to kill over 3,000 Americans. So
if Muslims are against ISIS too, why are they not speaking out to stop ISIS, I
mean they do out number them? Referencing back to the bible, people think the
bible is all about peace and happiness, which it is but remember God ordered
Israelites to go to war with other nations (Joshua 4:13.) God also ordered the
death penalty for numerous crimes. God is not against killing, God is against
murder. War is never a good thing, but sometimes it is a necessary thing and in
a world of sinful people, war is inevitable. Therefore, sometimes the only way
to keep sinful people from doing serious harm is by going to war. I
have gone back and forth on this issue in my head but in the end God leaves me with this,
"You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will
understand."
