Open any newspaper. Look online. Even peer out of your curtains. We’re living in challenging times. Whether it’s a diagnosis we’re waiting for, worry over paying the mortgage or where the next meal is coming from, or concern about the implementation of the latest political policy. Many of our friends, families, colleagues, neighbours – even ourselves – seem to be terrified of what is going to happen next.
The consequence of this is that we become anxious, living life on a cocktail of adrenalin, strong coffee, and high blood pressure. In turn, we begin to anaesthetise ourselves against the things we cannot control. We eat, starve, drink, medicate, and argue our way through life, all the while desperate for it all to just stop.
I wrote Finding God in a Culture of Fear for everyone from the mildly anxious to the overwhelmed. It’s also for everyone from the committed agnostic to the committed Christian. It begins from this place of chaos, but asks a deeper question about where hope is to be found in our day to day lives, how we can live hopefully, and where hope may be the source of our resistance to the anxiety of today.
When even Christians can begin to think that God is frankly not interested in humanity, this book offers a hopeful resistance to a bleak agenda. I try to engage with a Trinitarian framework as we encounter hope through knowing God as Creator, Son, and Spirit, as well as through the Christian community.
I wrote this book in response to the number of conversations I was having with people struggling with the tension between trusting God – but unable to see God at work – and the cultural chaos being felt across our institutions. Perhaps it’s part of being British, but we seem t find it easy to dwell on the negative and wallow in our insecurity, and much harder to find hope. So, this book is my attempt to find hope today – through my relationship with God, in the Bible, and through the Church. I also wanted to encourage people who are feeling powerless and overwhelmed in today’s climate to see Christian hope as the heart of a gospel-based resistance movement.
Through writing the book, I discovered that hope can be found in the corners, crevices and margins of our own lives and of wider society. The kingdom of God can be experienced here and now, as well as in our promised future. Living hopefully is as much about shared meals, the joys of gardening, creative collaborations and social activism, as it is about the transformative power of the cross.
Writing is always challenging, but the biggest challenge I faced with this book was an entirely practical one – how to reach a computer across a swollen belly: I wrote it during my maternity leave, completing the manuscript while my newborn napped. Parental leave was a gift to our family, and it seemed apt to use some of that time to explore what God is bringing to birth all around us.
One friend has described the book as ‘an antianxiety pill for the contemporary Christian.’ My hope is that it will help people to do more than simply survive our experience: I want people to flourish, as individuals and as Church. I want to offer grace and hope and to inspire courage and confidence – even in these difficult times.
The kingdom of God is a vibrant, beautiful, love-filled, grace-stained place – and we are all invited to experience that in our day-to-day lives, as a foretaste of our promised future. Finding God in a Culture of Fear invites us all to the adventure of hopeful Christian living, and to rediscover the abundant love of God which is at the heart of all things.
In these difficult and divisive times I long for readers – individuals, church groups, and the not-yet-convinced – to reconnect with our shared vocation of hopeful resistance, with open hearts, open tables, shared stories, and courageous creativity.
Together Magazine
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