Signs of Life

Living in the House of Love

“Fearful questions never lead to love filled answers; underneath every fearful question many other fearful questions are hidden.”

Henri J. M. Nouwen (Lifesigns)

Nouwen writes books about love—God's love. In his little book, Lifesigns, he begins by sorting through all the ways we live in fear and why. For the most part, at least in America, it is fear of not-enough-ness—not enough money, not enough education, not enough status, not enough friends, not enough love, and so on. According to Nouwen, we have surrendered the house of love to the house of fear. We have come to believe that living in love is simply naive—to believe for one moment that we do not have to be vigilant, cautious, and in many cases, armed, is simply living in la-la-land. To be “realistic” is to live in fear.

Give a moment, if you would, to thinking about what it would be like to lay aside fear for one whole day. How would it be to refuse to engage in cynicism or bond around negative ideology? How would our days be different if we were to look for what is good and what is working in our world, rather than what is bad and dysfunctional. Would we even know how to speak to one another?

In the spirituality group on Sunday, we talked about the ways that racism is deeply embedded in our everyday life without our awareness. Simple things like choosing how we drive home—going the longer route rather than driving through “those” neighborhoods. Assuming that to drive through an area deemed “ghetto” would be a dangerous undertaking. Racism, however it goes, is fear based. We choose to be afraid of one another, regardless of whether there is a real threat.

Jesus almost never answered questions directly. “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? By what authority do you speak? Whose wife will she be in heaven? Are you the King of the Jews?” Instead he turned them around and asked a question in return. He realized that all the questions asked him were fear based, worry filled, and most of all he wanted his followers to understand that they need not live in fear.

The world if full of fearful circumstances, and it is also full of hopeful, life-giving circumstances. We can live from our fear, or we can find the courage to live in the house of love, and refuse to give our lives over to cynicism and despair. Both love and fear are reality, and we can choose which reality will be our focus.

                                          In the Spirit,

                                                 Jane