We talk about how difficult it is to survive in our inner city, but these statistics make “the killing zipcodes” a reality…
Recently we had some friends over who live in the inner city (64128). We live in a safe suburb (64063). Around ten o’clock that night someone knocked on our front door, which is unusual for us. But my friend from the inner city bolted straight up out of his chair. The knock was a neighbor looking for something they left in our car. But the auto-response from my friend was telling. We kidded him about it, and all he said, “Hey when someone knocks on your door at ten at night in the inner city you move.”
Is our world ‘a perfectly safe place to be’ as Dr. Dallas Willard phrases it?* Or a violent dangerous place?
Perspective is everything. But I will say this: FEAR is the top sin. Fear keeps us from the good that we must do. Fear keeps us from trusting and submitting to Jesus. Fear keeps us racist. Fear keeps us greedy. Fear is scarcity. Fear that g-d was holding out on them drove Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Fear keeps sheep standing rather than lying down in green pastures. And fear will keep us out of the inner city.
Is our world safe or dangerous? It depends on who we think calls the shots.
*The Divine Conspiracy, p.66
