Monday, March 19, 2018

Fearless Healing

Fear is a powerful motivator. It can push us beyond rational thinking and behavior. It ignites anger.
In fear and anger, there is no love and no joy. There may be an adrenaline rush in the "gotcha" moments when we believe we have overcome an enemy, but that is evil and short lived. In those moments, we damage our soul and turn our backs to the universal power many call God.
I often return to the simple command from Jesus, "Fear not!" All his teachings revolve around this command. His ministry was fearless. He did not fear the leper, he healed them. Turning the other cheek is a fearless act. Nothing he did was based in fear.
Some point to his turning over the money changers' tables in the temple as example of justified anger. But first consider his motivation. It was based in love of the people being cheated. He did not call for rebellion. He did not stoke the fears of his followers to act out against anyone. He made his point the moved on and continued his ministry of love and healing.
Fear does not heal. Fear does not resolve problems. Acting in fear and anger can only grow more fear and anger. It is debilitating and destructive. It hardens our heart and weakens our spirit.
As fear grows within us, we seek ways to protect ourselves. We build walls in expectation that isolation will keep us safe. We angrily defend and protect those walls while others shout from the other side. It grows more fear which causes us and others to seek retribution or retaliation.
Fear cannot drive rational problem solving. Fear drives justification for destructive acts. The longer we let it fester and grow, the greater the destruction.
It's difficult to look our own fears in the face and recognize the power they have over us. We all believe our fears, and resulting anger, are quite justified. The laws of the universe (of God) are not in our favor. Fear is the opposite of love. We know we are operating in fear when we cannot look at the other and express love. Something is wrong in our soul.
If we want to heal this nation, if we want to heal this world - we must first heal ourselves.

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