Love and Fear

Just finished the book by Rohr.  May have to read it again.  So full of things to think about.  To Ponder.  In this time of anger and hate.  Of war and rumors of war, one thing that Rohr said jumped out at me yesterday.

“I believe fear is almost always behind hate…. For fear to survive, it must look like reason, prudence, common-sense, intelligence, the need for social order, morality, religion, obedience, justice, or even spirituality.  It always works.  What better way to veil vengeance than to call it justice?  What better way to cover greed than to call is responsible stewardship?”

I am going to have to think about this one.  The cloaking of fear, and hate, in the garments of faith.  I think I see this being done.  On both ends of the spiritual spectrum.  And it makes me wonder, how many things do we do out of fear?  How many of our supposedly righteous actions for God, are really about us? And our stuff?

I have no doubt that as people of faith, we seek to do good.

But how many times are our responses really about us, and our fears?

Our greed

Our anger

Our needs?

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Oh Lord

I want to be a person run by faith

Who walks through each day, allowing your presence and love to flow through me to the world

But Lord, there is that lurking thing called fear

In fear I become entrenched

In fear I do good things in order to feel more secure in your love

In fear I seek the love and affection of others

In fear I criticize

In fear I hold fast to my possession

But you tell us Lord

That perfect love casts out fear

You are perfect love

And you tell us that you are in us

I know that I will never, perfectly

Be free from fear

Help me to be so full of you

That there is less room for fear