No fear in Love

When I was a teenager, there was an elderly man in our church. I passed him in the foyer one Sunday morning and he said "Jimmie, do you remember what I told you?"

I didn't recall ever having any conversations with him, so I said I didn't.

He said "Don't be afraid of anything."

Some months later I saw him again. He said "Do you remember what I told you?"

I said "Yes."

He repeated, "Don't be afraid of anything."

That has proven to be a difficult challenge. But his advice has stuck with me. I can't say I've mastered my fears by any means, but I have at least come to understand the principle, if not the practice.

Somewhere back in the '90s I was reading the book A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson. In that book I was introduced to the idea that the opposite of love is fear. At first I thought, as you probably do now, that hate is the opposite of love. But it immediately occurred to me that you can't hate what you don't fear. Fear causes hate, therefore fear is the opposite of love.

The Bible often uses light and darkness as metaphors for good and evil. I have come to realize that good has its source in Love (God) while evil has its source in fear. Fear is darkness, love is light.

Now pay attention here, this is important. Darkness is nothing. It is the absence of light, not a power in iteslf. Likewise, fear, evil is not a power. It is the absence of power, or at least the perceived absence of power. God's love is everywhere, so there's really no place where the light does not exist.

Except when you close your eyes.

You can be surrounded by light, but if your eyes are closed you'll see only darkness. You can be surrounded by love, but if you are not aware of it you will experience fear.

Most of us are experiencing the darkness of fear to one degree or another. I, too, have much fear to see past. The trick is not to fight the darkness, but to let in the light. Don't fight the fear, but let in love.