The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
It’s hard to feel safe, but ‘Be Not Afraid’
I work as the spiritual care coordinator at Whitney Center, a senior living community in Hamden. Last week the community gathered for a safety fair, offering an opportunity to talk about how it is that we might live without harm, even as we age. The goal was to provide some simple reminders about making good decisions when we are in our homes and while we are out and about.
With humor and a bit of exaggeration, the Whitney Center Players (a group of resident playwrights and the actors) invited the community to recognize the dangers facing adults as we grow older. One skit highlighted the dangers of area rugs, another highlighted the use of canes. We laughed together, even while considering just how dangerous the world around us can sometimes seem.
Then Rafael, our technology expert, reminded us to be alert always to the scams that come our way. Who hasn’t experienced a phone call or an email asking us, frightening us, seducing us really, to give away passwords or our Social Security number?
Feeling safe is important for everyone. But how can we possibly feel safe when there are dangers and hazards at every turn? And it’s not just our safety at home that is of concern. Every day we are made aware of news headlines that speak to the chaos and uncertainty people of all ages are feeling, and how difficult life can be for the most vulnerable in our midst.
Even schoolchildren are now taught how to protect themselves should an “active shooter” show up at their school. People of color are being shot in their own homes, or in their own cars by those in positions of authority. People fleeing their homelands to escape poverty and violence now find themselves being turned away at the border. Women still face unwanted sexual advances and outrageous restrictions on basic health care. And LGBTQIA people live with discrimination still, and court challenges to their hardearned rights.
It is hard these days to feel safe. In times like these, I turn to the witness of the ancestors and to the holy scriptures.
The Hebrew word “shalom” is found throughout scripture. It means “peace,” of course. But that is often understood to mean more than just the absence of war. “Shalom” encompasses a sense of safety and security, wholeness and completeness, health and welfare in God, and in all that is around us.
The Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament are filled with references to God’s desire that all God’s people know such peace, such security, such safety. “You shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace,” declares the prophet Isaiah. Psalm 23 begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” and sets a tone of peace and wellbeing. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me.” The Gospel writer John offers these words of comfort and security: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
We’ve got a long road ahead to ensure that all can feel the shalom that God promises. I believe that we can get there ... working and living together for the common good.