Dec 06, 2015

Fear (4)

“There is much in the world to make us fear.

There is much more in our faith

To make us unafraid.”

                        Frederick W. Cropp

Fear is the Ultimate Loss of Faith

Fear is the lack of love in our very being; and the more we let fear reside in our being the more we deny any faith we have in God, and ultimately we deny all our faith. After all, G0d is Love, and only Love, and Fear is the Loss of Love; and grinding fear is denying the saving grace of our God in our life. The most powerful way to broach fear when it hits us; and all of us have unreasonable fear at some time in our life; is to join into the Love of our Divine Wisdom and just let our being rest in the steadfast knowledge that Life is never ending; that life can not end even if the worst should occur; we just change form.

We are at a critical juncture in our world, as those who would strike terror into the hearts of humanity strike again and again, and, as I write these words, appear to have won this battle at this moment of time as the country is writhing I fear. I am optimistic for the long term solution, but unless we humans can adopt these words of joy and optimism in this prayer, we may be in for a long haul of inhuman deeds inflicted on one another.

Most of us claim to believe in some God, or ultimate guide of life. Most of us believe we came here in this life for a purpose. Very few of us can name this purpose, but deep in our hearts we understand that somehow, somewhere, someplace we have a purpose. But when we let fear of the unknown or unexpected deny us life as a free person, keeping us trembling in our shoes and trying to hide in our ‘caves’, we lose sight of who we are as a person of God. Part of the purpose of life is to learn to rise above our basic creature nature where fear reigns supreme, and learn to face our fears and see them for the false picture they paint that they are.

Mind you, this is not one nation against another such as the past wars, but a few individuals who are confounding the greatest nation in the world to such a degree that the citizens are cowering, afraid to present a clear face to those that would destroy peace.

Two individuals with apparently no outside help, with a few legally purchased guns in the most gun-crazed nation on earth, has brought 340,000,000 people to their knees according to the media, who dwell on this for hours on end, repeating the same information over and over. TWO PEOPLE! What a weak and cowardly nation we appear to be. The French responded to their almost 10x killings by multiple individuals by refusing to hide, gathering in the same areas where the killings took place, rejoicing in life as it is to be lived.

Our response, I am afraid, will be bluster, hate, bigotry, and probably killing upon killing. Yes, this is the response of fear, that is, a fear-filled people, and it is wielded like a club, for we can kill thousands and rejoice in their death, while the angels weep at our response.

We seem to be gathering into a trembling and fear-filled nation where hate and bigotry at our core; and a political party seems to be rejoicing in this act, as it makes their fear whipping and anti-God (no matter what they call it) approach to be the favored approach at this moment.

Who are You?

Who are we? We are persons who are one with the divinity, the one that Jesus spoke of in his prayer at the last supper: “That they may be one, just as We are one, I in them and You in me.” (John 17:22-23). This is a call that we are one in God, just as Jesus recognized it, and his prayer is a call for us to recognize that we are all one, including those that intend to destroy us, and that we, all 7 billion of us, are each an individuation of that we call the Divine Wisdom, Allah, or God. Not the fullness, but a wavelet on the ocean of God. Jesus recognized his oneness with that we call God, and talked to God as his Father; but we would better use the broader term of Father/Mother, the All in All, the Divine Wisdom, and a thousand other names that try to name the unnamable.

Love your Neighbor as Yourself

So the question boils down as to who you say you are: are you the person who is a person of abiding Faith, relying on God for all and holding yourself up to face life as one who “Loves your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.—-Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt. 22:36-40). Or are you the one who hides, and fails to respond to the cry “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Fear is the lengthened

shadow of ignorance.”

                     Arnold Glasow

Questions to Ponder

How would you answer the call to respond to Jesus’s answer to the question of what the law entails: how does your present mindset align with the words of Jesus spoken in the last paragraph?

We all have problems in this area, almost every human being, so don’t feel too ashamed admitting a problem.

Do you see yourself having to readjust some of your feeling and mindset relative to that question, and what would be the first step in that process?

Then take that step.

Meditation

My God; I see how I have often failed to live up to the simple command: Love your God and Love your fellow humans. It sounds so simple, but we find ourselves too often swept away into the helter-skelter whirls of the life around us and it’s chaotic call that so often overwhelms us. Teach us to listen to that small voice in our inner being that suggests ways to reduce the din around us and to respond as You would respond in a situation. I lay myself in your presence; take my plea and help me to open my heart to Your Love in our world.