Biography
Harold L. Myra is President and CEO of "Christianity Today, Inc.," publishers of Christianity Today magazine, Leadership, and several other outstanding religious periodicals. Formerly editor of Campus Life magazine, Harold is the author of ten books, including Is There a Place I can Scream?, Easter Bunny, Are You For Real?, and Living By God's Surprises. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"The Nineties:  The Age of Anxiety" 
A few weeks ago, I greeted a seminary president and asked, "How are things going?" He voiced what so many feel: "I'm doing okay," he said, "but the world is falling apart!"

Why do so many have this sense of everything spinning out of control? The year-end issue of "Newsweek" called the '90's "The Age of Anxiety." War. Lost jobs. Debt. Divorce. Threatening changes.

Twenty-five years ago I read a book called The Dynamics of Change. It predicted that change, already rapid, would accelerate. The book was right--every year the rate of change has increased.

New technology has changed both our life styles and our world view. Mountains and oceans may remind us of God, but otherwise, modern man largely forgets Him. After all, didn't man create car phones and fax machines, jets and CD's, McDonald's and mini-vans?

Remember Samuel F. B. Morse? In 1844, he sent the first message over the telegraph from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. That historic message? "What hath God wrought?"

Can you imagine an inventor today declaring a breakthrough by announcing, "What hath God wrought?" Today the question is, "What hath man wrought?" Our world view has become highly sophisticated, man-centered and materialistic -- all of which makes us anxious indeed.

Can we experience Christ's peace in this "age of anxiety?" Let me briefly suggest three imperatives, and share three illustrations.

FIRST, WE MUST LOVE OUR ENEMIES

Many of our anxieties come from fears and resentments toward all sorts of enemies. Many of them do terrible things. Is it possible to obey the command of Jesus to love them?

If anyone was tempted to hate their enemies, it was surely those who endured Nazi extermination camps. Yet some obeyed Jesus' command in truly unbelievable triumphs of the spirit.

Let me share with you an anonymous prayer found in the clothing of a dead child at Ravensbruck concentration camp. Called "Remember," it appears in a book just released by Zondervan Publishers called Prayers of the Martyrs. I've found myself reading this over and over again, thinking of the remarkable faith of the man or woman who wrote this about their despicable enemies.

"Oh, Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will.

"But do not remember all of the suffering they have inflicted upon us: instead, remember the fruits we have borne because of this suffering--our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, our courage, our generosity....the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble.

"When our persecutors come to be judged by you, let all these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness."

Can we identify with such a prayer from the Nazi death camps? Let me read the final line again. "When our persecutors come to be judged by you, let all these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness."

If someone can pray like that for one's executioners, can we not love Christians who sharply differ from us? Can we love Palestinians? Muslims? Iraqis? Liberals? Conservatives?

We must sometimes take strong action against evil. But the very least we owe to those with whom we sharply differ is mutual respect. And Jesus said we should go far beyond that, and not merely with lip service betrayed by our harsh rhetoric. Jesus said, "Love your enemies."

Such love dissipates anxiety.

SECOND, LET US TRUST GOD, DESPITE THE UNTHINKABLE

We weep over the outrageous plight of Romania's children. We shudder at tales of torture in Iraq. We agonize over divorces in our families. Yet Scripture says that "God is love." How can that be? If God is all-powerful, how can He both love, and allow the world's terrors and tragedies? Yet the Bible, written at a time of much brutality, declared a lively hope. John boldly said, "God is love."

Alan Paton wrote Cry the Beloved Country, a great book about the sufferings of South Africa. In it, a godly black pastor seeks his son who has run away into the city. He learns his son has fallen among mischief-makers. In the end, the youths murder a white man.

The pastor's son was following the others, but he is tried for murder and condemned to be hanged. Through bribery, the ring leaders -- the real murderers -- go free. The verdict devastates the loving pastor. Here is a man who has no reason to say "God is love." Yet, on the day his son is being executed -- as he experiences the outrageous injustice and deepest of human tragedy, he prays in faith. He cries out in agony to God, but he still affirms his Christian hope.

A film was made of Cry the Beloved Country. The film makers clearly thought no black man in South Africa could possibly have faith that God is love. No black man could call out like that to God as his son was being executed. They saw only despair, and they named the movie "Lost in the Stars." At movie's end, in this version the pastor is not praying in faith. He is singing a lament, "I'm lost in the stars, lost in the stars."

As Christians, we are to weep with those who weep. We are to work for individual and corporate justice. Yet we still experience and witness outrageous injustice. We then have two options. Despair, with its deadly anxiety, or hope, based on the promises and realities of Christ.

THIRD, LET US LEARN TO BE HELPLESS

"What?" you may ask. "I feel helpless enough!"

But when we bring our helplessness to God, He enters the picture.

When I first heard the phrase "prayer is for the helpless," I didn't like it. I don't like to see myself as helpless. But then I thought about Christ saying, "Without the Father, I can do nothing." Jesus himself could do nothing!

When I was about fourteen, I had fenced in one-third of an acre for the goats I was raising. One morning, I came out to feed them and found a deer inside. Somehow it had gotten over that eight-foot fence. As soon as the deer saw me, it ran as fast as it could toward the fence, gathering speed. That little deer smashed against the top and fell back, hard. It shook itself, stepped back and started running again, with every ounce of energy possible. Once again it smashed against the fence top and fell hard to the ground.

The only other exit was through the barn. I opened the door and then tried to herd the little deer through, but it cowered back and ran off. From twenty yards away it started running again, in obvious desperation, determined to clear that fence. It leaped high, and its little body smashed so hard it bowed the whole fence, which just as quickly snapped back, throwing the animal down so hard I thought its neck had been broken.

Despite that, the deer's terror got him up, moved him back into position and launched him against that fence again -- and again and again -- until finally he lay exhausted, mouth open, tongue out, eyes darting in panic. I approached him, spoke gently, patted his head. He lay still. My fingers felt little nubs of horns. He was a button buck. I lifted him, wanting to allay his terror, but knowing I couldn't till I'd walked him through the barn and set him safely outside the fence.

As I released him, he hesitated only a moment and then bounded away. I wondered as I watched him go if the little buck ever understood that without my lifting him in my arms he would have remained trapped, helpless.

Like us.

We Americans are very self-reliant. No fences too high to leap. Like the button buck, we feel with enough effort and energy, we can scale any height. If we smash against a fence, we try harder and harder. Only when events like rejection and illness and debt and divorce finally crush us, do we lie there exhausted.

At those moments, if we look up, we might see our heavenly Father, who waits to lift us into His arms. We might allow the hands of Jesus to touch us before we become bruised and broken on the fences.

We might understand we really are helpless....like that button buck.

Prayer is for the helpless. Especially when we are told to love our enemies. Especially when we're suddenly caught in the worst of circumstances. Only then can we start to comprehend the mysteries of the Apostle John's declaration, "God is love."

Interview with Harold Myra
Interviewed by David Hardin

David Hardin: Harold, you spoke of how Jesus said we need to forgive and forget. Lewis Smedes appeared on this program and said that one of the problems with not forgiving people is that we keep them in our lives with a lot of power. I've seen that with people who are angry at an abusive husband. Their anger fuels them and they give that person power. Do you agree?

Harold Myra: I think that makes a lot of sense. To focus on God frees us. It is certainly not easy to forgive someone. There are abusive things and I think in his book Lewis Smedes is realistic about how difficult it is to forgive. Yet, being able to forgive frees us.

Hardin: You made the good point that Christ said to love our enemies. Sometimes we say that they are not worth loving. That isn't the issue. That is not for us to decide. Everyone you mentioned, all these people that we struggle with, are people. The moment that you get to know them, they are very real and loveable.

Myra: We want to see through God's eyes, rather than our own angry eyes.

Hardin: Right. Let's talk for a second about the publishing business that you are in. What are you trying to accomplish with "Christianity Today?" What would you like to see happen as a result of its publication?

Myra: "Christianity Today" is dealing with many of the issues that we are all wrestling with today. We are trying to bring in orthodox Christian perspectives to the many issues that are facing Americans and the world. We are trying to reach out to pastors and lay leaders with a thoughtful, careful approach that is clearly biblical.

Hardin: You have taken on some pretty tough issues, issues I think that many magazines might shy away from, like the issues of abortion and capital punishment.

Myra: And bio-ethics. All the difficult ones that don't have knee-jerk, easy answers.

Hardin: And that need tolerant approaches. You must get some mail now and then that finds strong disagreement with where you are.

Myra: Definitely. We have a lively letter section.

Hardin: You said that the role of some of these magazines can also be sort of parental. They can be a constructive, valuable thing for people.

Myra: I think many people today have kind of an identity problem. Their families, many times, have disintegrated; so, they look to "Christianity Today," for instance as a point of identity. They look to "Campus Life" magazine for teen-agers. A lot of kids don't have two parents. Some of them don't even have one. "Campus Life" becomes a kind of parent, becomes a point of identity. "Marriage Partnership" does the same thing for young married couples. Many of our magazines have that role.

Hardin: This is particularly relevant in an age of anxiety where we are scared and run so much by fear. It's been super to have you with us and I really appreciate it.