The title of today’s reflection jumped out at me when I read these words in a book I am reading for one of the classes I teach. I thought, “wow, so that’s the choice: fear or love?” I guess I thought it would be more complex than that.
Education has so many good things going for it. I cringe every time I think about the growing educational gap between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Those who have not pursued education will likely be so short-changed in our increasingly technological world, that I can only shake my head. So I do have high regard for education.
But education and progress is not everything. This was brought home to me when I was reading the section that contained the title of this reflection. Richard Rohr, the author, began a paragraph by saying, “It’s an enchanted universe; there is nothing new under the sun in terms of the soul.” Basically, I agree with Rohr.
Sometimes, this might be disappointing. Probably the American mindset typically expects good things to be new things. And that often is true. A really good computer is usually the new one. It has features and potentiality no five-year old comparable model would have.
But when you turn to the soul, good is not necessarily novel. There have been many soulful people before us. And what they have to teach us often is pretty simple and easy to learn. What is not easy is to practice being soulful and, indeed, living soulfully. Rohr talks about “soul patterns.”
Soul patterns are the basics in spirituality. Rohr lists some of them. “It’s either fear or love.” So this is a soul pattern. This suggests that all of us live our lives from one of these two perspectives: fear or love. That is not to suggest we do not know something about both fear and love. Most of us have experienced both. But Rohr thinks each of us has a dominant stance---a soul-tendency, if you will.
Of course, I do not know for sure, but my guess is most of us---if honest---probably know which is our dominant stance. I am pretty confident mine was fear…at least, for some time in my growing up years. Doubtlessly, I masked it fairly well. I was an athlete, did well in school, and was decently popular. Compared to my peers, I came off well. Who would guess my dominant stance was fear-based?
I am also confident this energized my early steps into spirituality. It is as if we know there is an alternative. And that alternative is the love-stance. As Rohr says, “Religion is always about love.” I began the process of discovering and growing into this new way of being.
I am certainly not there yet. I feel more like a kid wobbling along on his relatively new “spirituality bike!” I am moving; others are encouraging and helping. You need others in order to love and be loved. Love is not a solo journey.
I know I have to continue to be intentional. “Relax and relapse” might be a good phrase to keep in mind. That does not mean learning to love has to be always tense. But it does mean I have to be intentional---to be “in tension” with the love I strive to become.
It’s not so much knowledge as it is experience. It is easy to know about love and not be loving. But it is impossible to be loving and not know about love.
Join me!
Education has so many good things going for it. I cringe every time I think about the growing educational gap between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Those who have not pursued education will likely be so short-changed in our increasingly technological world, that I can only shake my head. So I do have high regard for education.
But education and progress is not everything. This was brought home to me when I was reading the section that contained the title of this reflection. Richard Rohr, the author, began a paragraph by saying, “It’s an enchanted universe; there is nothing new under the sun in terms of the soul.” Basically, I agree with Rohr.
Sometimes, this might be disappointing. Probably the American mindset typically expects good things to be new things. And that often is true. A really good computer is usually the new one. It has features and potentiality no five-year old comparable model would have.
But when you turn to the soul, good is not necessarily novel. There have been many soulful people before us. And what they have to teach us often is pretty simple and easy to learn. What is not easy is to practice being soulful and, indeed, living soulfully. Rohr talks about “soul patterns.”
Soul patterns are the basics in spirituality. Rohr lists some of them. “It’s either fear or love.” So this is a soul pattern. This suggests that all of us live our lives from one of these two perspectives: fear or love. That is not to suggest we do not know something about both fear and love. Most of us have experienced both. But Rohr thinks each of us has a dominant stance---a soul-tendency, if you will.
Of course, I do not know for sure, but my guess is most of us---if honest---probably know which is our dominant stance. I am pretty confident mine was fear…at least, for some time in my growing up years. Doubtlessly, I masked it fairly well. I was an athlete, did well in school, and was decently popular. Compared to my peers, I came off well. Who would guess my dominant stance was fear-based?
I am also confident this energized my early steps into spirituality. It is as if we know there is an alternative. And that alternative is the love-stance. As Rohr says, “Religion is always about love.” I began the process of discovering and growing into this new way of being.
I am certainly not there yet. I feel more like a kid wobbling along on his relatively new “spirituality bike!” I am moving; others are encouraging and helping. You need others in order to love and be loved. Love is not a solo journey.
I know I have to continue to be intentional. “Relax and relapse” might be a good phrase to keep in mind. That does not mean learning to love has to be always tense. But it does mean I have to be intentional---to be “in tension” with the love I strive to become.
It’s not so much knowledge as it is experience. It is easy to know about love and not be loving. But it is impossible to be loving and not know about love.
Join me!
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