Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

Words of prayer comfort, console, and commend. Our words of faith bring solace and cheer, empathy and an understanding spirit. In offering prayer about embracing our fear we indicate that we will show up for the wonderful moments and difficult times. In praying about fear we give others the courage to face their own inadequacies, doubts, and confusions.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

As children of God we rejoice and are exceedingly glad for the possibilities and new experiences that we will know as we are daily empowered to overcome the paralyzing nature of fear. We embrace fear as a time of growth, knowing we go not to the depths of despair, but to the valleys of change and the mountaintops of growth. May the words of our mouths be utterances of faith, seeking understanding in ways that enhance our community and ourselves.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

The dynamics and realm of faithfulness cannot be measured. God’s faithfulness gives us abundant life, protection, and saving love. Because of God’s faithfulness others can hear and experience our faith in action. Because of our faith we believe, and we live a righteous life realized in our thoughts and our deeds. The gift of faith moves us to be faithful stewards of ourselves and our resources. We rejoice for self-aggrandization, but we rejoice because our faith makes us whole, giving, and loving people. Our faith helps cure our physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and economic needs. Faith allows us to have a new perspective and the courage to engage the support of others. Faith serves as a catalyst for our creativity. When we can imagine, we can develop new ways of doing old things. Faith accords us spiritual powers, wisdom, and vision whereby we honor God’s creation.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

When fraught with fear, despair, and hopelessness we are reminded to have the faith at least the size of the mustard seed. Our faith may not always be strong, but we are called to be ever vigilant and prayerful. The increase in fear often means the decrease in our faith. Pretending fear is not present is not realistic, nor is it realistic to think we can live life to the fullest without a visit from fear. By embracing fear we learn that the fear is not bigger than we are or stronger than our faith. When we experience our faith as a gift from God and are closely connected to God, we are enfolded in a life preserver of grace. Threads of grace surround us for our Creator cares for us deeply. We experience God’s revelatory nature in wo we are and in the glorious riches of nature that surround us.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

As Ecclesiastes people, we realize that there is a time and a place for everything under the sun. We recognize that life has its own vitality and that the days of our lives are filled with possibilities in what often feels like uncertainty. In the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible, the writers make it clear that God is behind life and thus life is in order, even if it seems to be chaotic. Many times in dealing with fear we forget to praise. We forget these are moments to draw closer to God. Sometimes we are so trapped by what we “used to do” and what “could have” or “should have” been that we cannot exist in the exquisite “moment of now.” Sometimes today is the tomorrow that we dreaded yesterday. When we exist in the now, in the present, we have the possibility of living life at a more consciousness level. Such a level of consciousness reminds us that as we praise, we have opportunities to embrace FAITH, as Fervent Anticipatory Incarnated Total Healing.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Wading Through Troubled Waters

God’s faithfulness emerges:

in all creation,

in all the days of our lives,

in the hopes and possibilities,

in love and peace and community.

God’s faithfulness emerges:

in the very possibilities

Of birth and death,

in relationships cast in truth and health,

in the connectedness of life.

God’s faithfulness emerges:

In the daily rising and setting of the sun,

In the laughter of children and old folk,

with every new discovery,

with every new dream.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

To be free, liberated, or saved infers a grace-filled mode of being and existence in the world. Such salvation understands eschatology, an awareness and consciousness of being free now, which stands in tension with what is yet to come. To experience salvation is to know fear, without being a victim of fear. To be free of fear is not to be reckless, but sure in the love of God. To be free of fear is to accept the challenge of life as a ministry one is called to fulfill.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

Seeing life as a ministry is the freedom assented to by those slave bards who sang, “And before I’ll be a slave. I’ll be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free.” To be free is to be open to possibilities, change, and responsibility for ourselves, our communities, and our ecology. True freedom is the ability to share a sense of liberation with others. True freedom can only be realized when one experiences a sense of salvation in the spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, communal, and economic facets of daily life. A faithful life of freedom does not negate the reality of fear, but does provide the tools and means for transcending the fear and making a difference.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

To move on is not to run away. We cannot move from what we have not fully experienced. To face fear is to know fear on a visceral, physical, mental, emotional level. The way individuals experience fear involves their history, culture, personal habits, level of maturity, and level of consciousness. Critical to attaining intimacy with fear and then moving on is one’s ability to stand amid both discomfort and the safety net of family, community, and self. Woven by grace, such a safety zone embodies spiritual gifts, particularly love and prophetic witness. Although prophets are usually not welcomed at home, we need those voices of wisdom and warning to face fear and to move on. Facing reality and discomfort takes courage, but such is not impossible and not always painful. In moments of awakening from the malaise of dreadful fear, one has a better sense of who she or he is, and is able to find purpose in life. To move on after facing the fear is to live. Ultimately, health and wholeness require being in the storm on the ship until the troubled waters and the rough rains are quiet. Healthy movement and change are major components for attaining and living liberative salvation.

The Undivided Soul

Faith: Facing Fear, Moving On

FEAR as Facing Every Activity Regally

Such a transformed way of viewing fear is to experience the conversion of a troubling energy to a healthy passion. By facing every activity with a regal or noble spirit we commit ourselves, particularly in a religious sense, to putting our best foot forward in a majestic, admirable manner. Such movement illumines the light within us. In some instances the most noble action is a quiet, silent, and grace-filled waiting. In other circumstances the noblest action is prayerful, discerning, and faith-based steps. Whatever action we choose, we do so in concert with God’s amazing grace. Such GRACE is Godly Renewal: Activated, Certainly, and Eternally. Such ongoing divine activity on behalf of humanity will sustain us and keep us when we are open to the presence of such power in our lives.

The Undivided Soul