Fearful thinking - pt. 2

"If you want to discover the difference which Jesus made to mankind, and go to New Testament to find out, the answer given is the casting out of people's lives of fear.

Fear, in the New Testament, is considered to be the root of all evil. It is fear which makes men selfish, it is fear which makes them hate, it is fear which makes them blind, it is fear which makes them mad.

Fear casts out love, as love casts out fear. Which of the two, therefore, am I going to choose?"

H. A. Williams, in The True Wilderness.

Fearful thinking - pt. 1

"When I reflect deeply on my life and what I really want, it is not to be afraid.

When I am afraid, I am miserable. I play it safe. I restrict myself. I hide the talent of me in the ground. I am not deeply alive - the depths of me are not being expressed.

When I am afraid, a tiny part of me holds captive most of me, which rebels against the tyranny of the minority.

When I am afraid I am a house divided against itself.

So, more than anything else, I want to be delivered from fear, for fear is alien to my own best interest.

Or, to put it positively, I want to give myself generously, magnanimously, freely - out of love. I want to be able to take risks - to express myself, to welcome and embrace the future.

I want to see what it is to be most deeply me."

Elisabeth O'Connor, quoting Gordon Crosby, in Cry Pain, Cry Hope.

The Farthest Shore, by Ursula Le Guin

"Try to choose carefully, ... , when the great choices must be made. When I was young I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, ... , between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are." Sparrowhawk.

This breaks my heart and fills me with hope all at the same time. It is heart-breaking that people can be so easily ensnared in a vicious circle because of their earlier choices; yet I know there is hope because one can be equally 'ensnared' in a virtuous circle because of one's earlier choices.

Thank God for God.

"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." Matt. 11:12