Overcoming Fear

Overcoming Fear

Several years ago I wrote a children’s book. It sat for a long time dormant, after being kindly rejected by several publishers. They were interested but then it just wasn’t “its time”, they said. I am not a confident writer so I FEARED maybe it was my writing. But interestingly enough the story is about overcoming fears. My brother Stephen had originally drawn some delightfully pictures for the publication. We decided to try our hand at self-publishing. William, who was a freshman at the time took Stephen’s original illustrations and modified them. And with a little editing we published.

            I am one month away from leaving for a trip of a life-time as I prepare to walk the the Camino de Santiago. Many people have commented that they are excited for me BUT and then they share their fears for me about my trip. Not all of the fears are the same. I understand fear. Here is the Foreward to that children’s book I wrote:

Freida the Singing Frog is a story about overcoming fear. Sometimes we are challenged to overcome our fear by good things in our lives. At others times we are challenged to overcome our fear because we are faced with adversity or because bad things happen to us. The story of Freida reminds us that even in the face of overwhelming odds, our fear can help us to take a leap of faith. When we do, we will find strength beyond ourselves and others ready to cheer us on!

The strength beyond is incomparable. And my cheering section is unbelievable. Thank you for sharing with me on this journey!

I want MORE

Today at church we had communion by intinction--take a piece of bread and dip it into the cup. There were several young children in the congregation. After they had that small taste of bread they got back to their seats and said, "I want more!" One of the children got upset. The grandfather and mother tried to comfort him. I thought about giving him another chunk of bread but didn't want to upset those members of the congregation that might not "like" the protocol. So we finished worship, I pronounced the benediction and then picked up the bread plates and headed to the back of the sanctuary to greet people after worship. I stopped and told Henry's grandfather that the bread would be waiting for him. Henry found me after worship. I gave him a chunk of bread and his face lit up. I asked if he would like another piece. And he nodded yes. So I gave him a piece of bread for each hand. His face lit up even more! He scooted out of his mother's arms and came over to me with his face glowing and said, "thank you!"  His grandfather commented that maybe it wasn't appropriate for him to have spoke out and asked. But I told him that I was delighted and that I thought Jesus would be too. Jesus scolded those who would keep the children away from him. And perhaps we should all be asking for MORE!! More of what God has to offer. "I want more!"

"pilgrims together"--Giovanni

I salute you. I am your friend, and my love for you goes deep.  There is nothing I can give you which you have not. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see.  And to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you.

Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country home.

Fra Giovanni Giocondo (c.1435–1515) was a Renaissance pioneer, accomplished as an architect, engineer, antiquary, archaeologist, classical scholar, and Franciscan friar.  This is a reassuring letter he wrote to Countess Allagia Aldobrandeschi on Christmas Eve, 1513.

In That List Somewhere

Today's post also from Jack Hitt's book, Off the Road: A Modern Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route Into Spain, "A twelfth-century document from the pilgrim's shelter in Roncesvalles declares: 'Its doors are open to all well and ill, not only to Catholics, but to pagans, jews and heretics, the idler and the vagabond and, to put it shortly, the good and the wicked' I believe I can find myself in that list somewhere."

I believe as I travel I can surely find myself on that list somewhere as well.

(Places of worship as well as those claim to be disciples would do well to take on this sentiment once again.)

SMILE

"Miracles were those occasions when circumstances conspired to shatter one's preconceptions. They were times of joyful surprise, moments of pleasure. The word miracle comes from the Latin mirari, which means to look upon in wonder. In its etymology lies the warmer meaning of this word. Mirari also came into English as "smile" (from the Book Off the Road: A Modern Day Walk Down the Pilgrim's Route into Spain by Jack Hitt) May you find an occasion today when circumstances conspire to share your preconceptions. May you find yourself or someone else SMILING as you journey today for we are all pilgrims and each day contains miracles. 

Interruptions

Have you ever had one of those days or weeks when things didn’t quite work the way you had planned? You have a vision of how things are going to go and then events take over or a phone call comes or a visitor appears. This is how my week has been. I have had one thing after another that seemed to sidetrack so many of my plans, which affect the plans of others. Oh, it doesn’t mean that the things I have to get done go away, but it often means that there are obstacles and roadblocks and interruptions to getting those things accomplished. You know exactly what I’m talking about, you have been there as well.

I often want to just throw my hands in the air and say, “I GIVE UP!!!”

We I read portions of the Bible I encounter many characters who have the same sort of experiences––sometimes there are obstacles of their own making; sometimes God puts up roadblocks; sometimes others cause interruptions to the flow of routine––but in all of these experiences, at least in my own life and in observing others, one thing that I notice is that God is still working.

God works in individual lives, in community, in difficulty, walking through valleys of the shadows of death, in joys and on mountaintops. God works in times of celebration and times of sorrow when communities come together to remember.

Sometimes when our plans don’t work out the way we envisioned them it is exasperating. But here is a challenge, it is what I was challenged with this week to stop and see God at work—in other people, in a gruff stranger that helped, in an enemy, in a quiet moment you hadn’t planned on, even in the desperation of having to ask someone else for help. Where is God at work in your life that maybe you were too busy planning to see God? Take a deep breath and experience a fresh breath of God’s presence.

Ordinary People Or Even Scandalous People Ushering in Grace

   As I was doing my devotional readings this morning one of them was the Matthew 1 the genealogy of Jesus. I read this several times a year because it reminds me of how God works.
   At first glance this does not appear to be the most stimulating reading. And yet if you take the time to look at the list as a photo book of sorts you begin to see who is in Jesus family tree. And quite frankly for me this is a grace filled, joy filled celebration of sorts, to see who is in the divine family tree. There are only five women listed, yes only five, we of course know there had to be more, but five are listed and they are interesting choices ( won't give it away so you can dust off your Bibles and read for yourself! And spend some time getting to know who they were.)
   But the genealogy in Matthew, the divine birth story of Jesus as Matthew tells it, beginning  with Abraham, demonstrates that God works through ordinary, flawed human beings to display the extraordinary things of God, and that means God can work through you and me too.
And that's my tripping into grace today!