For God will never give you the spirit of cowardly fear, but be gives the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and sound judgment. 2 Tim 1:7 (TPT)
Contraction by Fear – Digital Sabbath Series – Part 4
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
**WE INTERRUPT THE HEAVEN AND EARTH SERIES FOR A DIGITAL SABBATH**
Jesse and I have been practicing a digital Sabbath on the weekends. Today in our house, right this very minute, the phones are switched off, and our computers are sitting dormant on our desks. People have practiced Sabbath-keeping for thousands of years as a reminder that subduing the earth is not what it's all about.
BUT, here’s something to think about:
How we deal with our fears, personally and collectively as people groups/nations/societies, becomes a defining measure that determines us as a people. Do you want to be defined and controlled by what you fear?
We can feel fear, sometimes it even has important things to tell and show us. But we should never embody it.
In his Daily Meditations, Richard Rohr wrote:
“Negativity works in many immediate and seemingly good ways. It unites a fear-based group far more quickly than love does, especially if you do not recognize or admit your own fears. Fear unites the disparate parts of your own False Self. The ego moves forward by contraction, self-protection, and refusal, by saying no. Sad to say, contraction gives you focus, purpose, direction, superiority, and a strange kind of security. It takes your aimless anxiety, covers it up, and turns it into purposefulness and urgency, which shows itself in a kind of drivenness. But this drive is not peaceful or happy; it is filled with itself. It is filled with agenda and sees all of its problems as “out there,” never “in here.” Witness American political agendas, if you want an overwhelming example of this level of consciousness.
The soul, however, does not proceed by contraction but by expansion. It moves forward, not by exclusion, but by inclusion. It sees things deeply and broadly, not by saying no, but by saying yes, at least on some level, to whatever comes its way. Mary’s kind of yes (Luke 1:38) does not come easily. It requires that you let down some of your ego boundaries, and none of us likes to do that. What I mean by Mary’s kind of yes is an assent utterly given from beyond, no preconditions of worthiness required, a calm, wonderful ability to trust that someone else is in charge, and the foundations are good and going somewhere. It is a yes that is pure in motivation, open-ended in intent, and calm in confidence. Only grace can achieve such freedom in the soul, heart, or mind. We hardly know how to think this way by ourselves.
Jesus came to reveal and resolve the central and essential problem—humanity’s tendency toward fear and hate. The pattern is so deep and habitual within humans that we even make religion itself into a clever cover for our disguised need to remain fearful and hateful. The ultimate disguise whereby you can remain a mean-spirited person is to do it for God or country. You are relieved of all inner anxiety; you can maintain your positive self-image and even some kind of moral high ground, while hidden underneath are “the bones of the dead and every kind of corruption,” as Jesus said (Matthew 23:27).
Love is the totally enlightened, entirely nonsensical way out of this pattern. Love has to be worked toward, received, and enjoyed, first of all by recognizing our deep capacity for fear and hate. But remember, we gather around the negative space quickly, while we “fall into” love rather slowly, and only with lots of practice at falling.”
Your turn… Do you want to be defined by your fears? Leave us your comments below.
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