Monday, July 31, 2006

Fear not, little flock.

"...for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (For this post I'm endebted to my long term good blogging Friend David McKay.)

FEAR! It drives most of us through life. It has filled up the psyche of our unfortunate country to the point where it may well lead to the destruction of the whole world.

We were in similar straits in the 30's when our President told us that "all we have to fear is fear itself". That's as true today as it was then.

911 led to the death of some 2600 people (a great many of them foreigners incidentally). That's about as many as we slaughter on the highways every two weeks. For some reason there's no hue and cry about the highway fatalities, no terrorized people practically losing their senses.

That was reserved for the Twin Towers. What's the diff? Well we ourselves kill motorists, but those people were killed by FOREIGN TERROISTS!! OMG. Since then a big part of the population has lived in a state of frenzied fear.

Strange! the whole world has been subjected to these kinds of atrocities for many many years. But it wasn't supposed to happen here in our blessed country. Hard to believe, but this particular fear dominates our politics to the exclusion of our personal liberties and our common sense.

It's no good, I tell you; don't do it. Learn to live like the rest of the world has done; go on about your business. If you live in fear and let it dominate your politics and everything else, then to use a foolish hackneyed phrase the terrorists win, .

Looking back on my life I perceived that from 12 to 30 I lived in fear; I didn't realize it (like most of us don't); I thought I was a tough nut, like Humphrey B, a don't-give-a-damn type of person.

But then I met love and most of the fear evaporated. At least I thought so. 15 years later it dawned on me that fear had an entirely too prominent place in my feelings (always carefully disguised of course).

Fear is like an onion. Subdue a layer and discard it and there's another (more subtle) layer underneath. Half the population appear to fear most of all that they may go to hell. They never got that from Jesus!

Jesus constantly harped on this subject to his intimates. The primary thing that separated him from them was their fear.

And it's still true.

Luke 29-32 "What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself" (The Message).

That's for you and me, friend.

6 comments:

Oberon said...

.......fear....greed....evil....in that order.

anonymous julie said...

Thanks, Larry.

Laughing, really knowing freedom, feels more than a little insane. It's such a departure from anything else, and makes the rest fade.

(It happens that I watched "Fight Club" late last night. Made for an interesting end-of-night and even better day.)

Larry Clayton said...

Oberon: it would take a thousand words to deal adequately with your three, but maybe the present generation isn't capable of perceiving more than three words.

Julie: thanks for your support, my faithful reader! "Fight Club": it's a mystery to me.

Jon said...

Hey, Larry,

Great post. It's absolutely amazing how much energy we spend on promoting negative emotions. "Please be outraged, please be violent, please be afraid."

It takes practice and awareness to decline the invitation.

Matt said...

Larry, this is one of the truest posts I have ever read.
I agree with Jon.
We need these invitations to our free will in order to have an opportunity to make better choices.
The time for fear is over. Trust is the operative word now.

Unknown said...

This old kwakersaur is honoured that a word written by him could inspire these reflections.

And yes poor David lives in fear. Fear of course has its uses. But like the other great powers, like Sin and like Death, it hungers for the kind of authority reserved for a god. And I give him what he wants far too often an far too habitually.