A recent editorial in the Guardian (April 6 2003) on the worldwide panic setting in over SARS, (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) shows how we have a habit of panicking when confronted with rumours of disasters and epidemics, often missing the real crises.

It is also easy to see, with recent saturation coverage of the war in Iraq, how easy it is to be distracted by what the media see as important, and miss what is really happening. Consider for example the four and a half year old war in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has claimed at least three million lives so far, but which has barely received any attention in the Western media. And, while SARS make the headlines, Malaria, one of the biggest killers of children and young adults in Africa, only just scrapes a mention. We focus on the most obvious alarming stories, missing the ones that reveal the quieter, but often more deadly threats. Are we missing something?

Throughout history, when we have felt insecure, we have sought to find someone or something to blame, some external reasons for our lack of security. And Jesus understood this. His disciples lived in an age of great anxiety, faced with an oppressive ruling authority, with leprosy stalking at the fringes of every community, with a great expectancy of the coming Messiah to liberate them, and yet living with a fear that God had turned His face from them as a nation. In short, they had a lot to be afraid of! But Jesus spoke some amazing words into this situation. He told them not to be anxious about the troubles in the world (Matt 24: 6 – 14), but to seek God’s Kingdom first and foremost, and God would take care of their needs (Matt 6: 33).

For those in mission, facing financial uncertainties, visa problems, political instability and risks to personal safety, it is easy to see a hundred and one reasons to be afraid and to quit the field. And these anxieties are not trivial either. Yet God blesses those who seek first His Kingdom, and it is a testimony to God that the many individuals who have taken risks for the Kingdom have found a God who has caught them when they have fallen into troubles. It is better by far to listen to the One who holds all things in His hand than the media and the gossip of the uninformed.

We so easily miss what God is really doing in the world, and the real spiritual battle between God’s Kingdom and the kingdom of the Enemy – a battle largely overlooked by the media, the pundits and the ‘wise’. It is a very real and serious battle, but a battle where the victory has already been won on a cross two thousand years ago.