Love and Fear Don't Mix

1John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I smell the fear that rains inside
The thought of children who must oblige
To tainted dreams and polluted seas
The missing moon and melting trees
A mist of doom and clouds of pain
Toxic waste and acid rain
The passing of our ignorance
A lifetime spent in abstinence

"Fear" written and recorded by Lennny Kravitz from "Let Love Rule"

Fear. Nothing paralyzes better than fear. Spinal injury? Brain injury? Absolutely, those are traumatic. Fear, that's subtle like a thousand paper cuts, subtle like a jackhammer.

Fear allows us to think thoughts that we would never ordinarily allow within the same area code. Fear makes us build fences. Fear makes us shy away from our neighbors because they are strangers. Fear keeps us from listening to anything that doesn't keep with what we already believe. Fear keeps us from new experiences. Fear keeps us from love. Fear keeps us from Love.

In a 1977 sermon, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin said "While love seeks the truth, fear seeks safety." American political discourse is filled with men and women showing where there are holes in security, places where we will be harmed. Not can be, will be harmed. This comes with the promise "Only I can fill the hole with safety and my opponent will allow these (insert enemy du jour here) take our way of life from us.

The comic Christopher Titus defines a terrorist as someone who causes us to adjust our daily way of life. His favorite terrorists are news anchors on Fox News and CNN.

Fear: tainted dreams, polluted seas, melting trees, toxic seas, acid rain, and my favorite of Lenny's images, the mist of doom and clouds of pain. We're living in fear. I blame Fox News and CNN too.

Perfect love casts out fear. Now that's a blessing that none of us can shy from. Perfect love casts out fear. Where all love exists there cannot be the mist of doom nor the clouds of pain. Where there is perfect love, there is no terror. Maybe, maybe where there is perfect love there isn't even CNN or Fox News.

Perfect love is found in God. Perfect love is found in Christ.

Seeking What God Has For Us

1John 4:1 (NRSV)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well they say that time loves a hero
But only time will tell
If he's real he's a legend from heaven
If he ain't he was sent here from hell

"Time Loves a Hero" by Little Feat

Faith is a sticky thing. We are called to do as the Lord tells us, but since the Lord has yet to send email as an answer to prayer, it can be tough to discern which way is right sometimes.

We have to remember that the greatest heretics of the Church were just men (yes, at the time it was only the men who made great heretical history) who thought they had it right and they were doing the will of the Lord.

Only time will tell they say. If he's real he's a legend from heaven, if he ain't he was sent here from hell. While it is true that time will tell, we don't have the witness of history when we seek to do the will of the Lord in our lives. So we need something more than the rear view window.

Seeking the Lord is how we test the spirits. Do the spirits bring the fruit of the Spirit? Galatians reminds us that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the fruits of the Spirit. There is no law against such things. If the spirit brings these things, then it passes the test.

By extension, things that do not pass muster, indiscretion, gossip, sloth, stinginess, gluttony, these things don't come fromt the Lord and bring no good. Times when it seems that hate is the right thing to do, there must be another way, and there is.

Listen to the Lord, test the spirits, seek the Holy Spirit.