There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. However the nemesis of love is fear. Fear
creeps into you. Builds up walls. Traps you inside yourself. Fear strangles you
slowly, subtly, until one day there’s nothing left to win or lose.
Bill Oakland
Oakland’s first sentence above is a
quote of Ellie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and author of 57 books. The actual Wiesel quote is this:
“The opposite of
love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's
indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the
opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. Because of indifference, one
dies before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being sent
to concentration camps or being attacked in the street and do nothing, that's
being dead.”
The two quotes together are really
powerful for me, and very convicting. I
am no stranger to fear or indifference.
I have struggled with them both all my life. The ironic thing about being a pastor is that
we are expected to be distributors of compassion, but to do that constantly can
be overwhelming – to the point that I can become detached. Detached is another word for indifferent and I
have gone there too many times. I also
have, too many times, let my actions be ruled by fear – fear of what people
will think, fear of being vulnerable, fear of failure, fear of rejection,
etc.
Perfect love casts out that fear
and transforms indifference into compassionate action. And you all know that by “perfect,” the Bible
means “growing.” I have literally
watched this happen in myself. Over
time, I have seen my fear and indifference start to slip away as I step forward
in love. I have so much further to go
than I have already come, but I do see progress.
I hope you all do too. Oakland and Wiesel together are right.
Spending your life being afraid or not caring is the same as being dead. I wish I could say that stepping forward out
of fear and indifference is easy. It is not. It is hard and sometimes
painful. Loving is like that. But it
beats being dead and more than that, it also moves us toward really
living. I love you all.
Question: Are there
specific fears that keep you from stepping forward in love?
Prayer: Thank you God for your love that draws us out of
fear and indifference. Help us take a
step forward today and every day. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for our Bishop Tom Berlin as he seeks to lead our conference during this
difficult time and for Dr. David Allen, our District
Superintendent.
Song: This one has a
story.
In 1899, a young poet
and school principal named James Weldon Johnson was asked to address
a crowd in Jacksonville, Fla., for the coming anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s
birthday. Just two decades had passed since the Reconstruction era, and
lynchings were on the rise in the segregated South.
Instead of preparing an
ordinary speech, Johnson decided to write a poem. He began with a simple but
powerful line, a call to action: “Lift ev’ry voice and sing.”
He paced back and forth
on his front porch, agonizing over the lines of the poem.
After finishing each
stanza, he handed over the lyrics to his classically trained
brother, John Rosamond Johnson, who put the words to music, according to
an account from James Weldon Johnson, recalled in the book “Anthem: Social
Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora” by Shana L.
Redmond.
AD
As he wrote the words,
evoking the struggle and resilience of his ancestors, he began to weep. “I
could not keep back the tears, and made no effort to do so,” Johnson recounted.
The following year, a
chorus of 500 schoolchildren performed the song at the Lincoln celebration.
The song quickly took off, becoming a rallying cry for black communities
in the South, or as one observer noted at the time, “a collective prayer.” It was embraced as a hymn in churches
and performed at graduation ceremonies and in school assemblies. Within 20
years, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People adopted
“Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” as its official song. For generations to
come, it would be known widely as the “black national anthem.”
Lift Every Voice and
Sing – Winston-Salem State University Choir
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