Downtown Community Church

In the same way that getting berated over leaving a bowl in the sink is a disproportionate reaction to the offense, political opinions are also prone to elicit disproportionate responses. In fact, politics are more divisive than religion. The majority of us would respectfully agree that we each have a freedom to practice religion, yet have no problem lobbing insults at the opposing political camp. Politics are so charged and provoke such strong emotional responses because they play on these two emotions: fear and hope. Note that fear and hope are emotions, and not necessarily information. Fear can be described as the backdoor to hope, and hope is the backdoor to fear. They are intimately connected because they are both future oriented.  This connection is incredibly important because at the end of the day, what we fear has the ability to control us. Jesus came to take control of our entire lives. Matthew 10 shows us how we can be rooted in this reality and trust God with it. Jesus says he is sending his disci