1 John: Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
Since I'm closing my store, I've found that I am a little on edge. There's still a lot to be done. On the one hand, I'm relieved and excited about new possibilities; on the other, I feel that I am letting people down, customers and employees included, and maybe there are other ways to continue (looking into that a little).
As a wise friend reminded me, fear is the root of it all. We've already gone down the fear road together in an earlier blog, but it shows up differently for everyone. For me, it usually shows up as doubt and the Joneses, as in keeping up with them or comparing myself to them. Recently, I've seen it show up in others as passive aggressiveness and disrespect. Both come from the fear of the unknown, the now what.
Yesterday, I had notes of what I wanted to say in a difficult conversation I was going to have with someone, but God put my wise friend in front of me and reminded me that fear was at the root of the now what (for both perspectives). Just like anger and forgiveness hold the same place, love and fear can't either.
I got my point across not by word or speech but by action and asking questions instead of speech giving. If God is love, then God is also the truth.
I have a meditation that combines the chakras with sacraments and the Our Father prayer, and intentions and images that have come to me for each chakra. The face chakra corresponds to the "hallowed be Thy name" portion of the prayer, the sacrament of matrimony, and the image of God knitting together two sides of the brain with the word "truth." In the image that came to me, God is not only knitting together the two sides of the brain, but also the left and right of politics, the yin and yang, the matrimony of two different individuals, and anything else that holds dualistic qualities.
Doesn't knowing the "truth" result in action? In the meditation, the image is God's knitting needles knitting the word "truth" to join the two sides of the brain, which in and of itself, is action. God is literally knitting (action) the word "truth," and isn't that love?
Thank you for Your love, truth, and action in us, Lord. May we recognize when fear obstructs us and instead live from a place of Your love, truth, and action.