What Do I Fear?
Photograph © Matt Stanford
What do I fear?
Instantly a fragment echoes in my mind
…perfect love casts out fear…
I am overwhelmed by guilt…
Surely if I really love God I would not fear…
In that moment I back away from honesty
Curl up once more in foetal position
Denying Truth
Leaving me unable to assess and address Fearfulness
For, truth be told, I do fear
The full Scripture reads
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.’ 1 Jn 4v18 NKJ
I love God as much as I am able
I am perfected in Love
But Love is not yet perfected in me
I am a work in progress
Therefore I Fear
I need not, but I do
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
Nelson Mandela
Aristotle suggests the middle ground between confidence and fear is courage
Therefore
To take one step, no matter how small,
To turn and face Fear
Is courage
To name Fear and be willing
To explore the root of it
Is courage
To breathe the Holy Spirit calm into
That tangled tight-hold grip
Fear can have over us
Is to re-establish the Lordship of God in our lives
Fear
Steals energy
It saps confidence
Extinguishes Light and Hope
Fear is one root of Anger
Main one I would say
Fear of being misunderstood,
Fear of being controlled
Fear of being hurt
When next Anger flares
To ask
“Of what am I afraid?”
Is courage
Carl Jung drives a stake in the ground
Here, where my fear is.
He writes:
Where the fear, there is your task! – C.G. Jung
Words and Pictures © Denise Stanford 2010
Within the Vine 