A Good Scare
Theme of the Week: Healthy Fear
Sunday, February 15, 2009
 1 of 1
Who Said It … J. Mark Bertrand
While in college, Mark received a form rejection letter in response to his first attempt at writing a novel—about spies. He says he's now grateful that it never saw the light of day! While obtaining a master's degree in Houston, he was production editor of Gulf Coast magazine. Mark now lives with his wife Laurie in South Dakota. He's the fiction editor at Relief Journal and teaches at Worldview Academy, an academic summer camp for high school students.
What He Said … A Good Scare
My lifelong interest in guns meant that, early on, I devoured everything I could read about weapons, studying how they work and what they're capable of doing. I learned how to fire them safely and accurately, how to take them apart and clean them, and most importantly what you must never do with them. One thing I never did was fear them. I've never quite understood the genuine, deep-seated fear that some people experience at the sight of a pistol. Respect? Sure. But fear?
Then again, I've never had a gun pointed at me. It's one thing to know and appreciate power in the abstract and quite another to be its object, to feel threatened by it. If someone points a gun at you, you'd be foolish not to be afraid. Understanding how the mechanism works (and how unlikely the mechanism is not to work) should give your fear a fullness that the fright of the ignorant never achieves. The more you know, the more afraid you should be. [continued 2/16]
Adapted from Rethinking Worldview (Crossway, 2007) by permission.
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
 share this page
God, I confess that I've minimized your breathtaking holy otherness in my mind. Restore the fear that puts my sin and your salvation into focus.
Men of Integrity
Connect with God | Transform my Mind | Live by His Power
Relate Better | Make an Impact
Home | Archives | Contact Us
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Try an Issue of Men of Integrity
Free!
|
 |
|
No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders.
If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless.
Give Men of Integrity as a gift
Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| |
|
RSS Feed
