‘Fear is the on the other side of the scale from awareness of God,” sociologist Brad Wright says in this issue.
We talked about that line more than what I ended up including in our published interview. The fear we discussed was the kind that comes from relentless news of shootings and bombings and assaults. It can drive us to prayer, but often it’s the kind of prayer that mixes “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy” with “God, where are you in this?”
There’s another kind of fear that is on the same side of the scale as awareness of God. It’s the kind of awe-and-fear that we see in this issue’s look at solar storms and hurricanes. It’s a fear that reminds us of our smallness. A fear that drives us to prayer, too—not just for protection, but also, strangely, in a kind of gratitude for the experience.
It’s my hope that this issue will make you a little more grateful for those storms. I’m not interested in Panglossian optimism that ignores sorrow and evil. But this magazine is committed to the idea that there’s more goodness in the world than we know. And that should make us deeply aware of the God who is greater than we know.
Thanks for being part of this.
