Letting go of Fear

Yesterday I began listening to a CD set based on Emmet Fox's book "Sermon on the Mount." Emmet Fox (1886-1851) was a New Thought preacher and taught Christian Metaphysics. The CD begins with this injunction:

"Fear not. To fear anything is to believe that you are separate from God. You and your Father are inseparable. Your greatest challenge in life is to accept this Truth and live it everyday. Know that Love and peace are your birthright. When this thought pattern begins to dominate your consciousness then and only then are you free to experience total Peace. Peace that passes all understanding."

Wow, what an injunction and what a challenge! I believe we human beings are hardwired to react to our environments and Fear is often our first response to challenges (I know mine is). I think it can take a long time to change this character defect and they way to do that is to work on its polar opposite and come to a realization deep within our being that nothing can separate us from God's participating Loving Presence in our lives. I have a lot of negative mental junk to overcome and much of it is based on Fearful thoughts that God is angry with me and wants to punish me. I think practicing this new belief is the road to healing those thoughts.

Introduction.

Spirituality is a very personal journey. My spiritual journey has taken me many places, some willingly, some unwillingly; sometimes I didn’t even know I was on a spiritual journey. I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic and although I did have some positive experiences there were also some negative experiences and my Catholic upbringing left me with some negative and fearful beliefs about God. The next step in my journey was with non-denomination fundamentalist Christianity. I spent too many years there and left that expression of faith with wounds that are still trying to heal. Toward the end of my fundamentalist experience I joined Al-Anon a 12 step programs for family and friends of alcoholics. In many ways I have found my spiritual home there in the practice of the 12 steps.

Walking away from fundamentalist Christianity was not easy and the wounds and the ghosts from those days still haunt me. Maybe in some ways this blog is part of that healing. I spent many years looking at more liberal expressions of Christianity along with devouring any information on can on all expressions of religion, faith and spirituality. So today I am very eclectic in my spirituality. With the influence of 12 step work I am more concerned with the practice of spiritual principles in my life rather than adhering to any orthodox theology, specific beliefs or religious traditions. Through many years and my own therapy and cognitive behavioral work, along with the study of physics and astrophysics, I have also become somewhat of an empiricist and rationalist and this leaves me sometimes struggling with those claims that have no proof.

Since spirituality is intensely personal and human beings are capable of thinking their own thoughts and coming up with their own opinions (let alone the influence of history and culture) there are as many religious beliefs as there are people under the sun. So I decided at some point in my life to follow the convictions of my own heart and my own mind. I can no longer have other people tell me what I should or should not believe. For one thing they are just as human as I am and I think it is very emotionally healthy for each of us to come to our own spiritual understandings and faith.

Ok. I have rambled enough for this first time…