For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your
right hand and says to you,
Do not fear; I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13, NIV
Goodness knows there’s plenty to feel afraid about. Real or imagined, we receive a steady stream of
messages each day that offer huge helpings of fear: the spread of ebola, the
stock market, our relationship with other countries, global warming, the state
of education, our childrens’ future, the dangers of diabetes, add your fear
*HERE*, and on and on.
How do you work with
fear? I’ve been told, more than once, that
fear and love don’t comfortably cohabitate; and that, when I’m feeling fear, I
should focus on love.
Focus on love.
It’s an instructive prompt, for sure; I like the sound of it, but when
I’m in the grip of a well-fed worry or fear, sometimes love feels hard to
reach. In Isaiah we read not only read,
“Do not fear,” but the follow up, “I will help you.”
Help? Yes, I accept! And, as a good parent or skilled guide, God
says, “tell me about your fear.” What is fear exactly?
Last week, I was devouring the words of one of my heroines, Terry
Tempest Williams, who in an interview shared, “You know, a good friend of mine said, ‘You
are married to sorrow.’ And I looked to him and I said, ‘I am not married to
sorrow. I just choose not to look away.’"
Sometimes, my fear is sorrow in disguise. It’s a grief I don’t want to acknowledge
because it will be hard to feel. When I
take God up on God’s offer to help me, I don’t have to look away. I can be a little more curious; I can feel
the sorrow; I can honor the change I was resisting; I can trust that whatever
it is that is feeling so unpleasantly beyond my control and uncomfortably
uncertain, will unfold in Divine Order…or it won’t, but I will have God to help
me with that too.
As the Autumn winds kick up tropical storms in the South, and as leaves
fall and temperatures drop in the North; as the season’s dark skies grow darker,
I feel God’s invitation to receive God’s help and to bring curiosity to my
fears.
What, real or
imagined, has you in fear’s grip? Where
is your curiosity greater than your fear?
About
Lauren: Lauren
lives in Berkeley, CA. She serves as
Dean at The Chaplaincy Institute (ChI), an interfaith seminary and tends her
private practice as a spiritual director.
You can read Lauren’s blog at: http://www.laurenvanham.com/
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