Liberation

In his book, The Silence of Unknowing,  Terence Grant writes this:

God comes so we might finally get the picture of the incredible love that has always been given to us. The only real problem here is that we don’t believe this good news. In fact, it’s too good to be true. And because we don’t believe that such a love can exist for us or for others, we hold on to grudges, we repay hurts, we destroy relationships, we commit acts of violence and war. We remain enslaved in negative places.

It is our personal spiritual experience that takes on a path that leads to our liberation from anger and fear, the kind of anger and fear that builds up within us as we pass through life’s obstacles. You might remember the lion in The Wizard of Oz. He was constantly roaring in anger, but eventually we got to know him and learned that underneath the angry roaring was fear.

How wonderful it would be to be liberated from anger and fear. And yet, we live in the kind of world that attacks our soul, takes us to the point of anger, and fills us up with fear. Frederick Buechner writes, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.”

So do we stay connected to grudges and hurts, destroyed relationships, violence, abuse, war, general nastiness, and a plethora of other negative things? Do we express anger to hide the fear that is really underneath it? Do we continue to separate ourselves from the God who can do nothing but love…. not being able to accept such love or even understand it?

There is for us a very special promise: As it was from the beginning, God is forever reaching out to us, offering us liberation from anger and fear, forever waiting for our return.