freedom

I got an e-mail some time back. It was a fairly exhaustive list of tips to help you avoid being abducted. It started off with logical advice like "don't walk down a dark alley alone at night", but progressed to "wear your hair up", an abductor often grabs long hair to take you and "don't go to your car if a man is sitting in a car next to it, go get a security officer", "don't have sympathy on someone with a cane or who is asking for help"... One of the statements was: "it is better to be paranoid than to be dead".

I was so appalled by this e-mail that was sent to me by a Christian! To me to be paranoid and in constant fear, distrusting of every male, turning from people who need help and orchestrating my whole life around a fear is to be dead already. What happened to "perfect love casts out fear" or even the most challenging and difficult directives by the Lover of praying for our enemies and those who persecute us.

I heard a tape once by a woman who was abducted by a rapist. She was amazing and shared the love of Christ with the man. She was not harmed in any way, was able to escape and later visited the man while he was in prison. She was able to see past his actions and her fear to see a man who had already lost the most important things in life, forgave him in her heart for the terror he caused her and offered him wholeness through the life saving message of the Redeemer.

To live in fear is to deny the power of the CEO or be open to his redemptive power. Even the vilest offender is one of the CEO's creations and Christ died for him/her too. I haven't had to face this terrible circumstance of having to forgive a horrible offense and hope I never have to, but if I do, I hope that I will have the inner fortitude to walk in forgiveness and love, because terror and bitterness destroys if not given over to the CEO.

We have been very challenged by the testimonies of genocide survivors Eva Kor (see the video Forgiving Dr Mengele) and Immaculée Ilibagiza who wrote Left to Tell. These women faced the most horrible torment and found power in forgiveness. Immaculée Ilibagiza even attributes her times of terror with granting her a most profound intimacy and communication with the CEO that has shaped her life to this day.

We must remember that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world and that love conquers ALL.