I was a fearful kid.
Ghosts. The basement. Dark woods. Bullies. That creepy clown painting my parents had. Fear was a frequent companion of my youth.
Fear continued to maintain its grip into my adulthood. What people thought of me. Navigating parenthood. My mistakes and failings being exposed. Career missteps. Relationship anxieties.
Now that I’m in my fifties, I’ve learned to let go of many of the fears that have plagued me, but not all. It’s still an issue I wrestle with regularly. Will I fail at my new author career? Will my kids continue to thrive? Will my wife get sick? Am I doing enough to help others?
When I read the following excerpt from author and teacher Henri Nouwen, it helped me realign my perspective on fear. I felt my shoulders relax and breathed a deep, contented sigh.
If you struggle with fear as I do, I hope you’ll find a tonic here. You may not believe in God or a Higher Power, and I respect that position. Either way, I encourage you to ponder these words and focus on the Love he describes. If you do, I believe you’ll find some freedom from fear’s grip and take another step toward Becoming Yourself.
“We are fearful people. We are afraid of conflict, war, an uncertain future, illness, and, most of all, death. This fear takes away our freedom and gives our society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises. When we can reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with a love that was there before we were born and will be there after we die, then oppression, persecution, and even death will be unable to take our freedom.
Once we have come to the deep inner knowledge—a knowledge more of the heart than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is deeply rooted in love, and that this love is our true Father and Mother, then all forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us and become painful but hopeful reminders of our true divine childhood. The apostle Paul expressed this experience of the complete freedom of the children of God when he wrote, ‘I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus’” (Romans 8:38–39).
Henri nouwen in “you are the beloved”
As shared in the Henri Nouwen Society Daily Meditation Oct 1, 2022. Text excerpts taken from “You are the Beloved” by Henri J.M. Nouwen © 2017 by The Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust. Published by Convergent Books.
