Dealing with Fear

Lectio Divina in John 1

Silence: Candles are loud

• struck match
• sulfuric odor
• wick crackling
• pupils adjusting
• darkness shoved
• wick's 2 second pause
• wax hissing
• soft glow...

My eyes, ears and hands absorb the candle's silence.  Eyes see loud colors.  Ears hear loud noises.  Nose detects boisterous odors.  Hands feel the heat of flames: match and wick.  Heart feels the hope.

Candles are loud.

Meditation: The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. (John 1:5)

Prayer: Please shine in my darkness, oh God.

Lectio: I am a voice shouting in the wilderness. (John 1:23)

Contemplation: Courage is action in the face of fear.

Oration: Fear, like darkness, obscures vision.  I don't think clearly, see clearly, speak clearly when afraid or in darkness.  Courage is a candle burning brightest in the darkness of fear.  What is needed to fully appreciate a candle?  Darkness.  What is need to fully appreciate courage? Fear.  Enter the wilderness.

A place of obscurity filled with things that will eat you: wilderness.  You want to keep quiet in the wilderness.  Yet the voice shouts.  Why?

Not because there is no fear but because there is action in the face of fear.  I act for Christ though scared.

Incarnation: Act for Christ, even when scared.