The Serpent Becomes a Dragon...

annie posted this to EU recently…...

Fear can manifest only because of a belief in separation. As long as you are something apart from God you will experience, in one form or another, fear. It is subtle and hidden like a poisonous serpent coiled in the grass, liable to strike at any time--at the most unguarded moment, when least expected.

Its only power is given to it by thought, and it can be swollen by thought from a serpent into a dragon. All thoughts of evil are like toy balloons in that they are enlarged until finally the capacity is overtaxed and they burst. Sooner or later a fear will explode itself, however much or little damage it has done. Walter Lanyon

to which I replied….

Oh, yeah' been there, done that.  So many things can grow to epic, horrifying proportions in our minds.  I am the "what if princess".....my mom is the queen. Imagining the worst case scenario is second nature for her and she so graciously passed the worry gene on to me. I often have to talk myself out of the ever escalating “what if’ scenarios.

But I am not alone….because lo and behold a few others on the list also fessed up to being in the royal family of worrier/fretters right along with me.

I know that perfect love casts out fear. I know that “fear not” is sprinkled throughout scripture. I know that Jesus overcame the world….but sometimes it is hard to “be of good cheer”…to not be afraid…to keep things in perspective.

About fear, Eckhart says…..

The psychological condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true immediate danger. It comes in many forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychological fear is always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now.

Although the body is very intelligent, it cannot tell the difference between an actual situation and a thought. It reacts to every thought as if it were a reality. It doesn’t know it is just a thought. To the body, a worrisome thought means, “I am in danger,” and it responds accordingly, even though you may be lying in a warm and comfortable bed at night. The heart beats faster, muscles contract, breathing becomes rapid. There is a buildup of energy, but since the danger is only a mental fiction, the energy has no outlet. Part of it is fed back to the mind and generates even more anxious thought. The rest of the energy turns toxic and interferes with the harmonious functioning of the body.

The voice in the head tells a story that the body believes in and reacts to. Those reactions are the emotions. The emotions, in turn, feed energy back to the thoughts that created the emotion in the first place. This is the vicious circle between unexamined thoughts and emotions, giving rise to emotional thinking and emotional story-making.

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The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and its interpretation of and reaction to that situation.

Hmmmmmm….okay…..back to the Bible….what does it say about fear…. besides fear not?

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
(Psalm 46:1)

In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
--Psalm 56:11

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
--II Timothy 1:7

Sounds encouraging…..

And what did Jesus say?

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
(John 14:27)

And where oh where do we find this peace Jesus talks about????

Perhaps we find it in the “secret place of the most high” from Psalm 91…..under the shadow of the almighty…..”

The christ within?

More tomorrow…..