I am linking up for the Five Minute Friday. The FMF is hosted by Kate Motaung on her blog Heading Home. Today’s prompt is “Fear.” Write for five minutes; unedited.
“Lord have mercy”
Those are the only words I can seem to muster up as I heard about the shooting at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston last night. What has our world come to? Can we not feel safe in our own places of worship? Can we send our children to school without the fear that a shooter might come into their building? Can we not take the lessons we learned in Sunday School and share God’s love with ALL of God’s people?
When I hear these stories of violence in the world, I immediately feel fear. Because so often the media blames the violence on a person who is living with a mental illness. That maybe true…but not everyone who lives with a mental illness will resort to this violence. In fact, most of them will not resort to violence because they have gotten the proper treatment. Yet so many individuals are filled with fear because they do not understand. They do not understand that there is treatment. But more importantly, they haven’t asked the questions or learned about this very treatable illness.
Anyone who has read my blog knows that I am a daughter of someone who lives daily with a mental illness. She has taught me more about life and faith than I could ever imagine. She would literally give the shirt off of her back. She is a beautiful child of God who understands what it means to cast out fear.
“Perfect love casts out fear!”
And I truly believe that perfect love casts out fear! * God sent Jesus into the world for our sins. Jesus was never afraid to sit with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was always breaking bread with the outcasts and the downtrodden. Jesus was a world changer and boundary crosser! Jesus hung on a cross and uttered the words “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Again “perfect love casts out fear!”
What if we followed Jesus’ examples? What if we stopped and truly listened to each other’s stories? Wouldn’t we see that when we love each other, fear is tossed to the wayside and joy and happiness boil to the top? Doesn’t God call us to show love to each other; to show love from all ends of the globe to the next?
“There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18)
For perfect love casts out and conquers fear!
Last week, I wrote about Godly fear vs worldly fear. If you didn’t get a chance to read that post, here is the link: http://prayingontheprairie.net/godly-fear/
*This is where my five minutes ended. I told them at the Twitter Party that this would be one of those word prompts that would easily go beyond the five minute limit. Sometimes you just have to keep writing!