Love Conquers (Transforms) Fear
One of the most powerful chapters on Love in the Christian Bible is 1st John chapter 4. In it, John, the author, shares with new converts the idea that there are other belief systems in the culture competing with Christianity that are fake and pretending to be Christian (which was the teachings of Jesus as Christianity wasn’t yet a thing). He told the followers they would know the difference between Christianity and false teachings by “trying Love on.” That which is of God is real. That which comes from the teachings of Jesus and the inner Christhood, is real. That which is NOT of Love, is not of God, as God is Love. They are synonymous. John then says one of my favorite things. He says that love casts out fear AND fear is full of punishment.
This last Tuesday on Talk and Practice (YouTube channel @BonnieBarnard-scs) I spoke of the power of Love to heal oneself improving physical health, increasing confidence, bringing one into the present moment, and providing clarity. All results of loving in the moment. Then I spoke to how you apply this in your daily spiritual life. And I said you embrace your current emotion with Love. I broke it down even further to say that when we love we:
give attention to, tend to
care about
listen and respond
stay present
keep our hearts open where the non-linear heart plume can be experienced
Distortion in our field comes from abandoned emotions. Distortion provides confusion, contributes to physical non-wellness, drains energy, sees things in a cloudy or incorrect fashion, and has us reliving the past or fantasizing a future away from the emotion. We bring our discarded emotion back into self and integrate them through Love. Yet, this isn’t our instinct. When we feel bad we tend to dismiss that part of ourselves and we find them unlovable in ourselves and in others. That’s when we play the unattractive projection game. We don’t like a feeling so we project it onto another, create a story about them, make them wrong, believe the story, and cut them off. Spiritual maturity, in part, is when we recognize that what arises in us belongs to us and we tend to it EVEN IF and ESPECIALLY IF we don’t like the provoked emotions. Shamans will do Soul retrievals to bring back parts of us, family systems therapy retrieves parts and in the Bible we are told that when we Love, fear/punishment isn’t present for Love “casts it out.” In today’s parlance we would say that Love transforms the energy of that which we fear.
This is a practice I have done now for thirty years, although not consistently and not necessarily well. I am now doubling down on it and showing up for myself in a more solid fashion. I talk often about those of us who actively live from Spirit experience broken heartedness and uncomfortable emotions all of the time. It is part of being in the Present moment with what is and yet IT ISN’T WHO WE ARE; it is energy taking on and losing form over and over again. So, this is one of the ways that I practiced loving all emotions this week and I have many more examples to share tomorrow night. Here goes…
I text my phone list this past week inviting friends to go to the YouTube channel and subscribe. Many, many people responded yes and wished me the best of my work in this format. I was moved. I was uplifted. I was elated. Then one person responded “no.” I had feelings of devastation and embarrassment. I wanted to recoil and hide. I wanted to tell myself to look at all of the “yeses.” I wanted to make up stories about the person who said no. I didn’t give into any of this, I just sat with the “sensation.” As I sat with it I loved it, I told it I wasn’t going anywhere. I reminded it over and over again that I love it and it is welcome to stay. Throughout the day I found the sensation returning and I did the same process over and over again. It took a few days, but now I can’t find it in my body and if it arises, I will love it again.
In the early 90s I began studying emotions and would do so for a good 12 years. I realized that everything of God is supportive, and so my emotions are too. I learned to feel them, name them, locate them, use them in art, and I learned that all of us have all of the emotions that are in the dictionary. That is why there are words for them. There are no bad emotions. None. They are information. However, it is best to make choices from a sober mind, a mind of equanimity not out of emotional extremes. Emotions work for us, we don’t work for them. I now know they are energy some with strong surges through our electrical system and too many surges can harm our system. I respect them. They are powerful. And now, I’ve come to love them. All of them. Or at least I am in practice of doing so.
Join me on tomorrow night’s YouTube as we go deeper into loving emotions that arise.
The greatest romance is that with The Infinite. You have no idea how beautiful life can be. When you suddenly find God everywhere, when he comes and talks to you and guides you, the romance of divine love has begun. Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
Keep showing up,
Reverend Bonnie
