We can be very reactive people when things are not going our way. One question in many faith circles is why we no longer preach hellfire and brimstone. Studies have shown that threats work. But preaching fear makes it hard to see a God that is love, and that fundamentally makes this wrong. Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that you don’t enter a love relationship because you feel afraid or threatened. You enter a love relationship because you feel drawn there by love. More importantly, preaching divine threats dishonors the God in whom we believe. The God whom Jesus incarnates and reveals is not a God who puts sincere, good-hearted people into hell against their will based on some human or moral lapse, which, in our moral or religious categories, we deem to be a mortal sin. What kind of God would underwrite this kind of belief? What kind of God would not give sincere people a second chance, a third one, and seventy-seven times seven more chances if they remain sincere? A healthy theology of God demands that we stop teaching that hell can be a nasty surprise waiting for an essentially good person. The God we believe in as Christians is infinite understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. God’s love surpasses our own, and if we, in our better moments, can see the goodness of a human heart despite its lapses and weaknesses, how much more so will God do this? Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. How does that square with not being afraid of God? There is a healthy fear innate within the dynamics of love itself. When we genuinely love someone, we fear being selfish, boorish, and disrespectful in that relationship. We will fear violating the sacred space within which intimacy occurs. Metaphorically, we will sense we’re standing on holy ground and that we’d best have our shoes off before that sacred fire. We honor God not by living in fear lest we offend him but by spending the incredible energy God gives us to help life flourish. God is a joyous energy within which to generatively spend ourselves.