Living without Fear

God has commanded us to not fear anything except him. We have been challenged in this commandment this week as a man was shot repeatedly at the end of our street at 9:13. In the morning. In broad daylight. On a Monday. In front of the post office. My post office.

It's presumed that the shooting was gang-related. The assault was un-aggravated, and was not a mugging. The young man who was shot is in critical condition still at the Boston Medical Center. This is the third gang-related shooting in our immediate area in a month.

I had a moment of panic when I first heard the news. I thought, "What am I doing here? Why am I living here?" and then I remembered that God has asked us to live without fear, and that I knew that this would be part of the deal when we moved here. We live in a broken world, and are choosing to live in an area of Boston that suffers under this type of violence. God has called us to be a light in the darkness, and we grieve with our community as the times seem dark indeed. Our pastor called this morning to encourage me that we are indeed right where God wants us, and I appreciated his support and reminder.

I walked to Walgreens in Codman Square this morning with the kids to get some pedialyte for Frankie (yes, she's barfed 6 time in the past 24 hours), and it was weird and sad to pass the candles, balloons, and photos taped to the stop sign at the end of our block outside the post office where the man was shot. There was a group of people, presumably friends of the victim outside the area who were politely chatting with each other. Codman Square was crawling with police officers, but other than that just seemed a little quieter than normal.

We covet your prayers to be able to live in Christ's strength and peace, without fear.