Why Hope Matters - Easter Sunday

COVID-19 makes us think about our mortality. Our brains aren't designed for that. So argues a Washington Post article from last October.  The author quotes a social psychologist who defines our inclination not to think about death as an "existential anxiety." Simply put, it means there is dissonance created by knowing we are human, but persuading ourselves that we are not going to die. It allows us to live our lives; that is, until we bump into our own mortality. Things like COVID-19, cancer, a car accident, are like smelling salts that shock us back into reality. Yet we don't have to be afraid. Many years ago, one author in the Bible called this anxiety "slavery to the fear of death."  (Hebrews 2:15)