Category: Reflections

As I sit on my deck in the early morning I am fully aware that I am embraced in the love of God. The sun is shining, the sky has been painted blue, the birds are chirping and there is a very slight gentle breeze. I hear the whoosh of cars driving by knowing people are out and about living their yes to God, just as I am. How they live it may be different than what I am doing, but we are all living out our yes minute by minute.

Each moment that approaches us is an unpredicted moment. We can’t know what each one will bring. We cannot know for certain how any given day will look like with 100% accuracy.  We make our plans, our neighbors make theirs and so does God so surprises and intersections happen.  Sometimes our plans are interrupted just for a moment such as the times when the passerby says hello and breaks our train of thought and other times we are interrupted for a greater length of time because of a phone call or the unexpected guest. Some unexpected moments completely change our lives due to things such as marriage proposals, pregnancy tests, the loss of a job, a health prognosis, etc.

Whether the moment that changes our path is minor or major, there is one thing that is constant. God is there and He loves us dearly. 

Each interruption holds a hidden treasure because each interruption is an invitation to find God’s love and return it to both Him and neighbor.   Each one gives us the opportunity to practice the virtues of faith, hope, and love and it is in those gifts that we are offered the opportunity to deepen our Union with God.

PRACTICING FAITH IN THE UNEXPECTED

We practice our faith by knowing God is there with us even if we can’t see Him.  Jesus, said, “I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt 28:20. 

We can easily forget this truth in the little interruptions. Without even thinking about it, we can get annoyed when we are in the middle of something and find our plans are even just slightly changed.  We focus on self and forget that for some reason, God needs our attention to shift so that we may love Him through our neighbor.  

In larger, happy interruptions, such as the marriage proposal, we can be so excited that we forget to include God, who is the cause of our joy.  We easily love the one we see, but neglect the invitation to love God.  

Some interruptions are devastating and can be very scary, but we never carry our crosses alone. Just as Jesus carried His cross on His back so that He could clearly see all the love that was around Him, we too must carry ours on our back so we can clearly see God, who is love, surrounding us. Our faith will show us that while bad things may happen, we know all things work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (ROM 8:28). We may not know what will come out of any given thing, but with faith and hope we know all will be well.

PRACTICING HOPE IN THE UNEXPECTED 

We must hold onto that hope because hope never disappoints (ROM 5:4-5). When we are interrupted by good things, hope in God can make them even better. When we hope in God during the difficult times, we know He will take care of us. 

God is bigger than any statistic or diagnosis. He alone can change what we see as the odds being stacked against us. It doesn’t matter what has happened in the past for us or others.  It doesn’t matter if the situation is the same or different. God is infinite and we cannot box Him in by expecting Him to do the same thing He did once before.  Our journeys are all different. Our adventures are our own. 

Once before I talked about the annunciation moments. When we think of the annunciation, we often think of all the positive aspects of it and we forget that a young girl was just told she was handed a reason to be stoned to death and she had no proof to counter such an accusation.  Through it all, she found joy through her faith in knowing God was with her.  Her hope lied in trusting that all would be well.   God would carry the burden with her so she could focus on her baby and Elizabeth.  He would protect her and make certain all would be well. This was her hope and she knew hope never disappoints .  Her faith and hope freed her from having to worry and enabled her to love others and experience the love which was all around her.  

Even in something as bad as certain death, which we all must encounter one day, God is our hope and Heaven our destiny where we will be immersed in the center of love for all eternity.

PRACTICING LOVE IN THE UNEXPECTED

Meanwhile, in all times we can practice love. Interruptions can be seen as simple as God saying hi, as difficult calls to look to Him for strength and everything in between. No matter what the circumstance, they are always a call to love Him and since so many interruptions come our way through others, they give us an opportunity to love our neighbor and love is a powerful prayer.  

When we love, we are in union with God because God is love (1John 4:16).  When we love, we are experiencing a piece of Heaven right here on Earth.

IN SUMMARY

With faith, hope and love, we are more capable of being at peace so we can experience God.  It is in that peaceful union that we are a far more effective prayer with our very lives than we would be if we were doubting, stressing and feeling despair that ultimately make it hard to love.

Living in the peace of practicing faith, hope and love is the goal.  It may take a lifetime to achieve, but when we put our faith, hope and love in God, we can grow in these virtues and the union they bring.  

Each interruption, good, bad or otherwise, is an invitation to love as we grow in faith and  hope.  When we fall, and we will, just having the hope and knowledge that God will not disappoint us and having the faith that as His children we will daily grow even if we can’t measure any growth, can make our hearts fill up with love and joy so we can stand once again.  Faith that we are children of the Father and hope in Him, a hope that doesn’t disappoint, reassures us of this so even our falls are reasons to rejoice.  Why?  Because our faith and hope are in God and God is love!

PRAYERFUL REFLECTIONS 

Meditate prayerfully on each area above that is bolded.  Talk to God about your reflections.

Are there joyful interruptions that you have failed to make God a part of?  Can you correct that now? Pray for the grace to do just that.

Are there bigger interruptions in your life that could use the peace that can come from living them out with the heart of faith, hope and love?  Can you try and stress less about them and practice these virtues more?  Pray for the grace to do so.

In the evening reflect on how you handled the small interruptions during the day.  Have you ever considered that the better you handle the smaller interruptions, the easier it will be to handle larger ones when they come?  Pray to handle the small interruptions with a heart opened to love. 

Can you get into the practice of pausing for a brief moment to ask yourself where the invitation to love is in the interruptions life brings?  Find the love and find God.  

Can you rejoice when you fall knowing you are a child whose hope is in a Father who loves you? 

Imagination can be one of our greatest gifts, but it can also be used to hurt us.

The storms of life can grip us with fear. They can cause us to freeze. They can pull us in so all of our focus is on the storm. The result can be anxiety, stress and worry. Like the apostles, we tend to focus on the storm, not on who is in the boat with us.

God is a God of peace. Yet we seem to act as if he is the God of upheaval and chaos when we focus all our attention on the storm and not Him.  The storms come in many different ways. The  one I am focusing on here is the storms from our imaginations that fill our heads with negativity.  We are all set.  We’ve worked hard and have carefully thought out our plans.  We are excited.  We are filled with hope and willingness to move forward.  We know we are in God’s will.  We have prayed and discerned.  We see the good that our decision will bring.  Then our imagination kicks in with thoughts that seem like facts.  Suddenly out of left field we are certain we can’t carry out our plan because it would be too hard.  We suddenly believe nobody would care and we would just be wasting time.  We entertain the possibility of being laughed at or ridiculed.  We become certain only bad will come from it even though we can’t even identify what that bad may be.  It’s at those times we can rest assured that it is not God leading us with thoughts such as these. He leads lovingly and in a calm manner. 

This can happen with large scale events and even with common daily circumstances.  The moment we realize this is not the voice of God, we need to shut it down. We must not entertain it. More often than not, the voice is stopping us from doing good or trying to entice us to do bad. We must, as Saint Ignatius says, act like a strong woman and say no so that the enemy will flee.  When we make this a practice with the small situations we find ourselves in, it will become a developed skill in the larger ones.

I had to pull in the reigns of my own imagination this week. I begin focusing my attention on the storm that was over powering the positivity, love and hope from God. It was causing me to doubt what I knew was of God.  It was my own imagination bullying me.  I had to choose to stop the imagination, turn my back on the “what if’s” and turned to God.  I turned my attention to Him and not the storm.  I let Him calm my storm.  

I looked for God in all they ways that were around me, trusting that within my life, He had already supplied me with the tools to fight a battle He knew was coming well before it came.  The tools I had been supplied with were:

1. The determination to refuse to entertain the negative and demeaning thoughts. 

God‘s love for us is so intense. We need to embrace it and pay no attention to the bullying that is the voice of the enemy. If God wants us to go on a different path, He will not lead us by fear or demeaning ways. He will lead gently and lovingly. When the loud voice of the stranger tries to grab our attention, we must not engage it.  We must silence it by focusing on God’s whispers and all He is offering us to weather the storm.

2. Observing Others

I recalled the actions of solid people in faith that I had observed over time and how they handled the attempts presented to them in hopes they would abandon God’s will.  Being in a state of heightened awareness, I also noticed people who were currently staying the course on a path they believed God called them to.  In all these people I made the following observations. 

• They refused to listen to anyone who spoke negatively as an attempt to let their imagination entertain any negative thoughts and discourage them from what they knew they were being called to do.  They were already on the steady course and God was their focus.
• Their path gave them purpose with passion regardless of what the naysayers said because they had already discerned they were doing God’s will.  Love for God energized them.  It was their driving force.  After much hard work, they were ready to share what they had done with their gift.  Letting their imagination entertain negativity and get discouraged was not a door they would open.  They knew the road they were on was other oriented.
• They fought with their faith in order to stop the sudden negativity.  They trusted that God wouldn’t suddenly shift gears on them before the task given them by Him was complete.  They trusted that if God gave them something, they needed to use it and let Him worry about the results.  They trusted that if, however,  God did want them to go down a different path, He would lead gently and with love.  They knew they could recognize Him in love, not the negativity their imagination was tempted to entertain and the discouragement it would offer.

It is true that we can fall off the right path and we should not instantly shut out people as they could be helping us, but discernment in knowing God’s voice can help us to know when it looks more like bullying from others or even ourselves.  Sometimes we have to ignore the delivery.  Discernment can help us to follow hope and the love of self giving and not follow despair or a turning inward towards self love.  We can discern when they are trying to get us back on the path we originally set out on and may have fallen off of or if they are trying to pull us off the path that is good and right.  In times that it may seem confusing, it is always good to talk to a trusted friend, pastor, mentor or spiritual companion that can help you discern.

3. Talking to God about it. 

We must pray and make God the focus in whatever way we know builds up the special relationship we have built with Him.  It is in that special relationship, that communication of love, that we recognize our Advocate and can clearly see that the other voice does not have our best interests at heart.  This is why regularly praying is essential.  We can’t wait until an imaginative storm comes to think we can know how to recognize God’s voice.

4. Scripture 

I turned to scripture that I had used in the past that always gave me strength.  It is always good to have a list of go-to-scriptures that touch our heart and seem to have a way of giving us peace when the storms of life come.  

These methods quickly helped me find my grounding again.  Instead of embracing despair, I found hope.  Instead of fear, I found faith.  Instead of allowing my imagination to hurt me, I reminded myself that imagination is a gift to glorify God with for creative purposes, not hurting me with thoughts that are contrary to God’s loving and merciful nature.  God never brings about His will by acting contrary to His goodness.  It is in my relationship with God and paying attention to Him in the many ways He presented Himself to me that I found my heart stirred up for God.  It is a gift available to all of us and one that greatly helps when the storms come.

I hope this reflection and these points to ponder help you as much as they helped me in knowing God more personally.

Reflections for Sitting in Prayer with God.

Read and reflect on Lamentations 3.  Notice the negative imagination in verses 1-20.  I seriously doubt his flesh was torn into pieces.  Notice the contrast in verses 21-40. Notice the contrast started with the power of hope.  

How do things change in your own life when you put your hope on God and not the storm of your imagination?

Is there something on your mind that has been stirred up negatively through your imagination?  Do the thoughts seem like the nature of God or His enemy?  

What has been the result of it?  Talk to God about that.   

Practice not entertaining the bully that takes up residency in your head.  

If you know you are walking in God’s will and people seem to be trying to pull you off the path, but you are still feeling confused, talk to a trusted friend to make sure you haven’t gone astray.

We are nothing, we have nothing and can do nothing without God. We are truly poor, but in this poverty we can be powerful and make a difference for both God and neighbor. 

POWERFUL FOR GOD

It is in being aware of our poverty that we can make a difference. It is in our nothingness, united to God and His Divinity, that enables us to accomplish even the smallest of things. When we are aware of this, we become powerful vessels for God because we become the prayer. It is in this state that we can do all God asks of us because our acknowledged nothingness coupled with our yes enables Him to work through us.

There are different gifts, but the same spirit; there are different ministries, but the same Lord; there are different works, but the same God who accomplishes all. The Spirit’s presence is shown in someway in each person for the good of all. (1Cor 4-7)

It amazes me to think of this divine union we are blessed to be a part of. In our nothingness, we have it all. We are never alone. We never have to do anything by ourselves. We always have the One who cares deeply for us in us and by our side. When fear sets in when we set out to do something that challenges us, we need only to step back and be mindful that we are vessels. We are not alone and God is going to accomplish what He needs done through our loving yes. The same holds true when loneliness creeps in. We are never alone. We are always being held by our very loving God.

POWERFUL FOR OUR NEIGHBOR

Being mindful that we have nothing without God not only connects us to God, but to our neighbor. Right now, for instance, I am sitting on my couch writing. I would not have the couch nor the laptop were it not for God. This reality can be taken as far back and deep as I care to go. For instance, who built the faculty where the couch was made? Once made, what employees helped to make it? Who supported them while making the couch? Who helped to feed them, get them to work etc.? Who helped to get it to the store? Who worked on the roads for the delivery truck to drive on? Who built the truck? Who supported the workers? I can continue this line of wandering right up to my door.  At this moment I can take comfort in knowing I supported the livelihood of many by my yes and because of all the other yeses, I have a couch. From the yeses of others I also have a home where I am safe to sit on it. I keep it clean and that gives respect to those who helped me to have it and those who now use it all while  giving honor to God.  I can now invite friends and family over and because they have a place to sit, it is an aid in the building of community. All these jobs may seem small and isolated, but they all contributed to me having a place to sit and all the good that can come from it. This is how we know we are united as one. This is how we know we have nothing without God.  It is in the gifts that He gave each individual that He was able to get me a couch. All we have works this way. 

We all may seem small, but when we step back, we realize that is in our smallness, our poverty, that we are able to be in union with others and God.  We may be tempted to want to do it all, but in having only one small part, we have a powerful union and can make a difference.

We can take every aspect of our lives and pause for a brief moment to realize the union we have with God and neighbor. All matters whether we are giving or receiving. Later today I have to mail my son some important paperwork. I cannot do this without God and the help He offers through others.  Think of all the people that will help in being able to get this document to my son and all that he will be able to do because of it. Our connections to our neighbors are everywhere.  

POWERFUL PRAYER FOR OUR NEIGHBOR IN NEED

All we do matters. Nothing is insignificant and when we are mindful of God‘s presence in us while we are doing all things, we become the prayer. Before we do anything, no matter how big or small, we can begin by offering it as a prayer for any intention God places on our heart. By that, we not only are making a difference in the lives of people that will directly be touched in some way by what we are doing, but we can help people that are not going to be touched by our immediate actions simply because we used it as a means of prayer. That is amazing. That is a way we can work towards praying without ceasing.

SUMMARY

Christ is like a single body, which has many parts; it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts. For the body itself is not made up of only one part, but of many parts. (1Cor 12 & 14).

We are one.  We are all connected to God and each other.  We need each other to survive and that is possible because we are each united to God who is our source for survival.  Being mindful of this is one way we can live out the the two most important commandments…loving God and neighbor.  With hearts filled with love for God and neighbor, we want to make a difference.  Often we are frustrated because we feel we are not doing enough.  It is in those times that we can be mindful of the smallest act we make, connected to God and neighbor is always vital. God uses everything! 

For Prayerful Reflection with God:

Meditate on the two bible passages above… 1Cor 4-7 and 1Cor 12 & 14.  

Prayerfully reflect on the reality that we are nothing, have nothing and can do nothing without God because we are truly poor. 

Reflect on the various things you have done today and how they made a difference both directly and indirectly, as well, if you offered the actions up as a prayer. 

In what ways were you helped today because you were connected with people you don’t even know?

What prayer intentions do you have that you can offer your various actions up for today?  When you feel like you are lacking in something and need help, consider offering it up for the materially poor who are lacking and need help as well.

Try and be mindful of your union with God in all you do.  While it may be impossible to keep the awareness continually, beginning each action and periodically looking up to God is a beautiful way to help to keep your heart  stirred up for God.

Talk to God about all of this.

Destination…Purpose! If only we had a GPS that could take us to our purpose!  The truth is, if we did have one, we would find it to be a very short trip.

At various times in our lives we think about our purpose and set out to try and find it.  We often look for large scale ideas that can make an impact, but we fail to look at the now and how we are already making a difference. I have three highly independent children who are out in the world doing three different things with their lives. They are each using their gifts to make their corner of the world better.  This is what parenting works towards.  That means that in the times that we are changing diapers, making dinners, helping with homework, getting them to sports practice and cleaning the house, we are fulfilling our purpose. We may not see it at the time, but we will see it in the future. This is not just the case for parents.  This is true for everyone.  Together with God we make a difference. 

The fulfillment of our purpose happens when we are fulfilling our purpose each day that is set before us. 

Parents may see only pots and pans.  Children may only see homework.  The to-do-list, in our limitations, can seem mundane and endless, but God sees the bigger picture and the differences we are making. 

My children are grown, but my purpose in life is not over. It is set before me just as it was when I was raising them.  Of course, some things take great discernment.  I am not referring to those bigger decisions.  You also cannot say yes to everything or you will burn out.  I am referring to the times we say yes in the simplicity of our daily lives.  These times form us and direct our path without us even thinking about it.  In most situations, among the pots and pans, so to speak, we often come to realize that all any of us have to do is say yes for today and each today that comes to make a difference. We say yes to those who we have the ability to help. We say yes to being good stewards of the gifts we have been given. We say yes to giving what we have and receiving what others may want to share with us.  By that sharing, we form commUNITY, which is always vital.  We say yes to new opportunities if they seem right and good and we say yes to learning. In the stillness of our hearts we follow what we become passionate about even if it seems silly. 

We say yes every day to the desires of the Father’s heart and we trust that with each step we are making a difference. Each step is taking us to the finish line whether we can see it or not. Each finish line is not the end, but the beginning of a new purpose.  By this we see that there is nothing ordinary about any day in our lives. 

While there are countless different things we say yes to, when we are striving to make a difference, they all have one thing in common.  They all entail sacrifice.  To make a difference,  we say yes to benefit someone else, not our self gain.  It is other oriented.  On our own we are incapable of sacrifice, but the greater we grow in our love for God, the greater is our ability to sacrifice with love…and not with grumbling.    Yes, God is love and and He has shown us that true love is in sacrifice. 

Being mindful of being united to Jesus in the sacrifice, helps us to be the unceasing prayer because on our own, we would never be able to make even the smallest other-oriented gesture.  That is why we are in great union with Him when we sacrifice and why everything we do becomes a powerful prayer. 

Even self-care is other oriented as in taking care of our physical, mental and spiritual selves, we can maintain our health and with a refreshed mind and spirit, we can more readily give with a heart of love. 

During Covid, my routine changed. In these months I have used the time to create the life I would want when I retired. Having my son with me in the beginning was a big help as it is in his nature to be a supportive coach. When he stepped out of the car at the airport, I thought that my support had gone and without my cheerleader, I wouldn’t be able to continue on the road I had begun to travel on at the start of Covid. Then I realized that was not true. The roles had been reversed. Over the last two months he was raising me so I could be independent on this new purpose-filled road.  His returning home was a fulfillment of his purpose at that time. When he got on the plane, a new purpose for him had begun just as mine had. All the steps I needed to begin my retirement journey were prepared before the road would be traveled on because each day, step-by-step for the past several years, I was fulfilling my purpose for the day until the time came for me to have a support system to pull it all together.  

In fulfilling my daily purpose, God was gently getting me ready for a new purpose, a purpose that could not be met without first daily preparing for it with my yes.

Then, when it was all set, He sent me the encouragement I would need to hit go.

Each day that we say yes, we are fulfilling our purpose. It is met with all that we are given. God doesn’t make it hard. We do. Our gifts, talents, circumstances and heart lead us day by day. When we fail to realize it, we fail to enjoy the spectacular gift of today. We fail to see the loving hand of God preparing us ahead of time for what we will need down the line. 

It is that very hand that loves us that assures us we don’t need to worry about tomorrow. We only need to do what we need to do today. 

To procrastinate and put off things will cause problems as that is our free-will no. It is a way of blocking the very thing we want…purpose.  The things we put off way heavy on us, making it difficult to move forward.  But with our yes, we can soar because we are carried safely in the wings of God. Psalm 91:4

For Prayerful Reflection with God

Are you aware that when you do things while being mindful of God’s presence, by your very life, you become a prayer?  If it’s hard to be mindful constantly that is understandable.  Try starting and ending each thing you do being mindful of God.  If possible to remember, take a small pause while doing the job to remember you are doing your responsibility with God.

When doing for others, do you have a selfish motive or an other-oriented motive?

Are you grumbling in your sacrifices?  Perhaps you need some self-care so that you may be more loving when you do for others.

Reflect on how many things you said yes to in the simplicity of your day and how that made a difference for others.

Are you giving time to explore your gifts and grow in the things that interest you?  Are you mindful that by your growth, God may be preparing you for the future?  At the very least, these may be a cause of refreshment to you and when you use your gifts, you always glorify God because on your own, you cannot do them.

When you think about your past, can you now see how God was preparing you for what you are doing today? 

Help me Obie One Kenobi. You’re our only hope. 

LESSON 1

As I said in the previous blog, pride and fear played a big part in the Star Wars sagas, but humility and hope were also strong and, in the end, won.  The times when hope played a part began with humility. The humility led to peace, not anger. The peace gave way to love and in this scenario, when the door to fear was opened, it was firmly shut tight. The focus would not be on fear. Instead it would be focused on a righteous hope that was anchored in love. It would not be an I, I, I or  me, me, me mentality. It was a mentality of we.  The individual was never alone, not even when they were the only one physically present.  They just understood this just as we understand being one in Jesus and in the Communion of Saints.  They never thought of themselves as the bravest or most supreme. They were humble. They were part of something bigger. The odds against them were not dwelled on.  The loss they could incur was not about themselves and how they would feel if they suffered the loss. It was completely other oriented. 

Being mindful that they were never alone and part of something bigger, for the sake of those they loved, they would risk their lives while holding onto a hope anchored in love.  As Saint Paul tells us in Romans 5:5, hope never disappoints when it is centered on God.  

LESSON 2

When someone was trying to win someone over from the dark side, reason never worked. Force never made them change their ways either. While mercy and compassion were always present when winning someone over, it was also grounded in hope. The one filled with hope could see the conflict within the one who was in the dark and with love, they showed them hope that they would return to the side of good. With great love, they set up the hope.  Perhaps deep down we never want to disappoint someone who melts our hearts with the hope they have in us…and hope never looks like the manipulation of a guilt trip. 

It may have taken time, and hope may have even diminished a bit, but it always won because it never died. God-centered hope is that powerful.

LESSON 3

Nobody in the movie was perfect and neither are we. In one instance there was one who was grounded in humility, but fell and entered the door to fear. Just as in the person who leads with pride, actions based on fear of the humble person still cause devastating effects because we are one. 

Our words and actions never only affect us.  We are one in the Body of Christ and by our very lives, we are the prayer. 

The difference between entering the door of fear when one was filled with pride and one was filled with humility was repentance. 

With the strength of repentance, the humble one willingly receives help from God.  Though they may fall, they are able to rise again, continue to grow and say yes when the door is open to help and make a difference.  They are able to reject fear and act on hope. They can right their wrongs.

So much can be overcome with hope. While fear and despair are closely tied, so are courage and hope.  Both bring about action, but only one truly has victory.  We don’t have to be battling major battles in an actual battlefield to see how fear versus hope dictates our lives. We only have to become aware of the first inkling of a reaction to any loss or possible loss we may find surfacing in us. 

With each of these 11 movies, the idea of fear versus hope grew stronger within me. The idea that love conquers all and hope never disappoints also became stronger. While I know that to be true, the question is, do I live that?   I am excited to learn where I am in respect to hope so I can grow.   I invite you to pray on it as well.

PRAYERFULLY PONDER THESE QUESTIONS 

Meditate on Rom 5:1-5.

Do you ACT as the prayer of love and hope knowing how powerful they are? 

Are you afraid of losing something?  Do you exercise hope in the situation?

If you are afraid of loss, are you looking at self or being other-oriented?  Can you be honest about it? 

If you are in a situation that is the result of you acting out of fear, have you embraced the power of repentance?

Is there someone you have been trying to pull out of darkness?  Are you using a combination of reason and anger or reason and love? Have you tried using hope and love? Do you think it’s worth at least trying?

Pray on these and talk to God about them.

“May the force be with you.”

Recently I was able to spend 11 nights watching every movie in the Star Wars saga with my son.  By watching one nightly in a short period of time, I was better able to make sense of all the stories on a whole. I also was able to see the underlying theme that played throughout the movies.  We can all see that the sagas are a battle between good and evil. We can understand the inference of faith each time someone says, “May the force be with you”.  What wasn’t so obvious, at least to me until I saw them all played out together, was that they were also a battle of pride vs. humility and fear vs. hope. We all know the line, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re our only hope,” but there was so much more.  I was filled with the presence of God as He taught me so much about fear and hope through these science fiction movies.  Without giving away any movie spoilers, I’d like to explain what I mean in this post and the post next week.

THE MOVIES

The times when fear played a major part began with pride.   While it can be manifested in many different ways, pride basically gives one the attitude of entitlement. With entitlement comes a sense of the need to control the circumstances in order to hang on to what one feels they are entitled to have, what they are unhealthily attached to.  Fear of loss begins when the entitlement is threatened.  In the movie, as the entitlement and, therefore, fear grew, anger grew as well.  It easily followed.  

With all this, the ground then becomes fertile for the threat of some sort of loss to be perceived as great and the door for battle to be opened.  Armed with the interior destructive weapon of fear that was built on a foundation of pride, anger seemed justified, drastic actions were engaged and hate followed closely behind.  Nothing short of a recipe for disaster.  The only way the characters in the movie could protect themselves from losing what they loved was to enter the door and fight. In addition to the interior battle tools of pride, fear, anger, and hate being used, they employed secrecy.  They never explained the truth of their greatest fears to those who loved them and had always been there for them.  With nobody to help eliminate their fears, they only saw battling as the answer.  Having put themselves on the pedestal of power, they believed that they could fix everything through their skills and power.  Anybody who stood in their way would be eliminated.  While they insisted they were acting for the good of others, their fear of loss exposed the truth.  All their actions were to ensure that they did not have to suffer the loss they so greatly feared, a loss that was easily exaggerated in their imagination because it began with pride that was so tightly connected to all the fears that had developed and then kept a secret.

With fear causing the initial action, destruction became the fruit and instead of saving what they did not want to lose, they lost it and so much more. Jesus told us the only way to save our lives is to lose them (Luke 9:24), but fear has trouble seeing this and we become totally blind and increase the destruction once we hate.

LESSON

Anger, in whatever form it takes, reveals much.  It never starts independently.  It is rooted in other causes and can show us things such as how closely connected pride and fear are. 

Anger, including things like passive aggressive anger or stubbornness, often reveals what we are afraid of losing.  In short, they expose what lies in the heart. 

That can be true even if we don’t recognize fear and only see pride being revealed.  Pride  has a measure of entitlement and attachment connected to it and when those are threatened, one can fear suffering their loss.   Pride/fear can be in one area or in many that have  built upon each other.  Pride/fear can turn to hate slowly or quickly, but in general, if we don’t address it sooner than later and a door of something greatly feared is opened that allows the anger to manifest into hate, we are going to find ourselves on the losing side.  The sooner we recognize where the fear lies, the sooner we can address it and protect ourselves from the devastation and blindness hate causes.  We should never be afraid of revealing the fear we hold within to those we love.  It loses its power when we have the support of someone who can identify when fear is unfounded and instead helps us to embrace humility, truth and hope.  

What happens when fear is warranted and the threat of loss is real and righteous?  I will cover that in my next blog when I discuss humility and hope.  For now, I will reflect on these points so that I may grow in my relationship with God by growing in trust and fearing not.  I invite you to join me. 

REFLECTIONS TO PRAYERFULLY PONDER

Scripture can help us on this journey.  The problem is that often times we say we believe what our faith teaches us, but then when we are asked to actually live it, we forget what we have learned.  

Do you just repeat scripture or do you live it? 

Do you believe pride comes before the fall?  

Do you do a daily examine to see if pride crept into your day?  If it does, do you address it immediately? 

Do you recognize fear or anger in our lives?  What are you afraid of losing? 

Do you say scripture tells us not to be afraid 365 times and then become fearful?  

Do you say that perfect love casts out all fear, but fail to practice it? 

Do you say love conquers all and not mean it? 

Do you have a trusted friend who can pull you out of pride and fear before it becomes overwhelming?

Do you talk to God about your fears and why you act like you believe or do not believe in His teachings about not being afraid?  Do not be upset with yourself.  Wounds take time to heal and God is patient with us. 

Pray and reflect on all of this with God.