Love and Fear: Is the Sky falling In?

I was out the other morning walking with Molly. As she was running round the park a couple of women with dogs called out to me. They asked “Do you know who’s this dog is?” They had two dogs of their own and their was another dog with them. One of them was trying to lure the dog onto a lead with treats. They said that they had found the dog wandering around the tennis courts and they thought it belonged to an old man. They seemed quite fraught and thought he must have had an accident. Other people passed and they asked if they recognised the dog. No one did. Folk began milling round and getting involved in the commotion. One of the women began calling a local vets and the RSPCA determined that something terrible had happened. More people began to gather round. Two other women with prams and one with a dog slowly moved towards us. I asked them if they knew the dog and one calmly said, “yes it is mine. I was calling him and wondered why he didn’t come running. I wondered what was going on.” It seems the dog likes to wander off in the park doing his own thing, lots of dogs do. Molly does. They also knew the old man who’s dog was much like the woman’s own.

It seems that things had got completely out of hand. Panic had set in. A simple situation had been blown out of all proportion. The dog was fine and yet fear and anxiety had begun to spread from seemingly one little acorn, or in this case one little dog who likes to do his own thing. It reminded me of that classic Children’s story “Chicken Licken” The story of an acorn falling on the chicken’s head which convinces him that the sky is falling in. he panics and decides he must inform the king.

There are many versions of this tale and it goes by many names. This version is primarily based on a collection compiled by the American Unitarian minister Edward Everett Hale. A man who had a great influence on Helen Keller during her childhood. He is probably best known for the following quote “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

Anyhow this is the story of “Chicken Licken”

As Chicken-licken was going one day to the wood, whack! an acorn fell from a tree on to his head.

"Gracious goodness me!" said Chicken-licken, "the sky must have fallen; I must go and tell the King."

So Chicken-licken turned back, and met Henny-lenny.

"Well, Henny-lenny, where are you going?" said he.

"I'm going to the wood," said she.

"Oh, Henny-lenny, don't go!" said he, "for as I was going the sky fell on to my head, and I'm going to tell the King."

So Henny-lenny turned back with Chicken-licken, and met Cocky-locky.

"Well, Cocky-locky, where are you going?" said he.

"I'm going to the wood," said he.

Then Henny-lenny said: "Oh Cocky-locky, don't go, for I was going, and I met Chicken-licken, and Chicken-licken had been at the wood, and the sky had fallen on to his head, and we are going to tell the King."

So Cocky-locky turned back, and they met Ducky-lucky.

"Well, Ducky-lucky, where are you going?"

And Ducky-lucky said: "I'm going to the wood."

Then Cocky-locky said: "Oh! Ducky-lucky, don't go, for I was going, and I met Henny-lenny, and Henny-lenny met Chicken-licken, and Chicken-licken had been at the wood, and the sky had fallen on to his head, and we are going to tell the King."

So Ducky-lucky turned back, and met Drakey-lakey.

"Well, Drakey-lakey, where are you going?"

And Drakey-lakey said: "I'm going to the wood."

Then Ducky-lucky said: "Oh! Drakey-lakey, don't go, for I was going, and I met Cocky-locky, and Cocky-locky met Henny-lenny, and Henny-lenny met Chicken-licken, and Chicken-licken had been at the wood, and the sky had fallen on to his head, and we are going to tell the King."

So Drakey-lakey turned back, and met Goosey-loosey.

"Well, Goosey-loosey, where are you going?"

And Goosey-loosey said: "I'm going to the wood."

Then Drakey-lakey said: "Oh, Goosey-loosey, don't go, for I was going, and I met Ducky-lucky, and Ducky-lucky met Cocky-locky, and Cocky-locky met Henny-lenny, and Henny-lenny met Chicken-licken, and Chicken-licken had been at the wood, and the sky had fallen on to his head, and we are going to tell the King."

So Goosey-loosey turned back, and met Ganderly-landerly.

"Well, Ganderly-landerly, where are you going?"

And Ganderly-landerly said: "I'm going to the wood."

Then Goosey-loosey said: "Oh! Ganderly-landerly, don't go, for I was going, and I met Drakey-lakey, and Drakey-lakey met Ducky-lucky, and Ducky-lucky met Cocky-locky, and Cocky-locky met Henny-lenny, and Henny-lenny met Chicken-licken, and Chicken-licken had been at the wood, and the sky had fallen on to his head, and we are going to tell the King."

So Ganderly-landerly turned back, and met Turkey-lurkey.

"Well, Turkey-lurkey, where are you going?"

And Turkey-lurkey said: "I'm going to the wood."

Then Ganderly-landerly said: "Oh! Turkey-lurkey, don't go, for I was going, and I met Goosey-loosey, and Goosey-loosey met Drakey-lakey, and Drakey-lakey met Ducky-lucky, and Ducky-lucky met Cocky-locky, and Cocky-locky met Henny-lenny, and Henny-lenny met Chicken-licken, and Chicken-licken had been at the wood, and the sky had fallen on to his head, and we are going to tell the King."

So Turkey-lurkey turned back, and walked with Ganderly-landerly, Goosey-loosey, Drakey-lakey, Ducky-lucky, Cocky-locky, Henny-lenny, and Chicken-licken.

And as they were going along, they met Foxxy-loxxy. And Foxxy-loxxy said:

"Where are you going?"

And they said: "Chicken-licken went to the wood, and the sky fell on to his head, and we are going to tell the King."

And Foxxy-loxxy said: "Come along with me, and I will show you the way."

But Foxxy-loxxy took them into the fox's hole, and he and his young ones soon ate up poor Chicken-licken, Henny-lenny, Cocky-locky, Ducky-lucky, Drakey-lakey, Goosey-loosey, Ganderly-landerly, and Turkey-lurkey; and they never saw the King to tell him that the sky had fallen.

The shows how easy it is to get caught up in irrational fear, especially someone else’s. it is important to examine the evidence of our own senses or you too could get caught up in someone else’s fear. Half the park did the other day. Now to be fare it came from concern and care, but still the fear was unfounded. How often do we see panic flow from a the acorns of life. Every day an acorn will fall on someone’s head, but it does not mean that the world is about to end.

Fear is a powerful emotion. It has the power to inhibit but it also has the power of allure. Fear comes in many forms. Forrest Church identified five different types, which he associated with the body, intellect, conscience, emotions and soul. These being:

“Fright” (Centred in the body), which is a kind of instinctive fear, designed to protect us from physical danger. It’s that feeling that makes us jump while watching a horror film or the thing that gets our blood pumping and awakens our senses and allows us to respond to physical danger.

The second being “Worry” (Centred in the intellect), this is a fear that is produced by our worst imaginings. Often they are not real and can be blown out of all reasonable proportions. Shortly before he died Mark Twain mused, “I am an old man and I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened”

The third being “Guilt” (Centred in the conscience). This is a fear of being caught out or found out due to something that we have done in our past. It’s a fear we often carry with us and can be projected into so much of our lives. It’s the feeling that can come over us as we pass through security at airports, even though there is no reason to feel it, or when walking out of shops and passing through the security senses, even though we know we haven’t stolen anything.

The fourth being “Insecurity” (centred in the emotions), this is fear prompted by feelings of inadequacy. It is a fear that breeds a need to seek approval from others. It’s form of Narcissism and forms deep self-consciousness which makes us unconscious to life itself.

The fifth and perhaps worst of all is “Dread” (centred in the soul), a fear that is generated by life’s general uncertainty. In “Freedom from Fear” Church wrote “ ‘Man himself produces dread, wrote the Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. We manufacture it whenever we attempt to control things over which we hold no final authority. We reduce life to a battleground, where we struggle against insurmountable odds. Fearing every transition from certainty to uncertainty, we devote our full energy to protecting ourselves against loss. Dread is the opposite of trust. The more we dread death and dying, the more alarming life and living turn out to be.”

Yes fear has many faces and all of them powerful in their own ways. We each of us experience every type at different times in our lives.

Children often fear the dark and many of us fear the unknown, the unseen, the uncertain. The truth is though that so much of life is uncertain. I have learnt that it is vital to accept this, to surrender to this and through this you find the courage to simply live and truly be yourself and to discover real faith in life once again.

I recall a story I once heard of a young boy who lived with his parents on a farm. His job each afternoon was to fetch the afternoon paper so that his dad could read, after a long day’s work, while eating his tea. Now one November day he forgot to fetch the paper and by now it was turning dark. It turned four o’clock, nearly tea time and his mum noticed that he hadn’t fetched the paper, she asked her son if he would get the paper. Twenty minutes later she asked again and then ten minutes later, still no paper, so she asked once again. This went on until the mum completely lost her temper and shouted at the boy, will you get your dad’s paper. At which point the boy burst into tears. His mother realising something was wrong went to boy, who was inconsolable by now. After a while she calmed him down and asked him what on earth was wrong. He began to explain that all his life he had been afraid of the dark, but was too afraid to let his parents know. His mother soothed him and then asked. Now then you are a boy of faith and you believe in God, you believe that God is in you and with you. That God is in everything, even the dark. The boy nodded and then his mother said “There is no reason then to fear the dark, for God is in the dark, and God can do anything. Now be a good lad and go and get your dad’s paper.” At this the boy looked up at his mum smilingly and went to the door. He opened the door and confidently and shouted “God will you get me my dad’s paper please.”

Sadly didn’t get his paper that night.

Earlier we heard a passage from Mark’s Gospel of Jesus and disciples being caught in a storm. It follows many verses depicting Jesus speaking in parables, at the river bank, about faith and the Kingdom of God. After Jesus has finished preaching he and the disciples cross the waters and are caught in a storm. The disciples become afraid for their lives and waken Jesus who calms the seas and then rebukes them with the following words ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ They were afraid, they lacked courage, and they lacked faith in life. It seems to me that living in this kind of fear is the very thing that so often reduces life and or can send us into a panic over a little thing. Fear is so powerful an emotion and can control so much of life. How though do we overcome it?

Well it seems to me that the key, to overcoming fear, is courage.

Courage in many ways is the essence of life, maybe it is our daily bread. Anais Nin once said “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” I’m sure we can all think of moments when our own lives have either expanded or shrunk in proportion to our courage. Courage itself comes from the French root “Cuer” meaning heart. To have courage is to have strength of heart. Courage is a consistent and sustaining love, it is a spiritual energy that sustains us in sickness and in health in loss or disappointment.

It is said that there are only really two emotions fear and love. Now I do not believe that to feel the emotion of fear is to lack love, or courage or faith. That said to be ruled by fear and to be paralysed by it, may well mean a lack of faith. How often in life, do we say no to life because we have become paralysed by fear? How often do we expect someone else to do what we can do ourselves, because of fear? How often do we create troubles for ourselves and others because our fear led imaginations have created a scenario that does not exist, like the woman in the park. For me faith is all about having the courage to be all that we can be do and to do all that we can do in love and service. It is also about taking and seeing life as it actually is.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to the size of our heart; life shrinks or expands in service to life itself. It’s about heart, it’s about courage, and it’s about being all that we can.

To have courage is to have strength of heart and to live from our hearts in our ordinary everyday activities. Courage is a way of living and breathing it’s about living openly and vulnerably in the world. Courage comes in those ordinary acts of love as we walk slowly through life. It is courage that allows us to learn that even when life has betrayed us, love is still present.

It is courage that allows us to stay open to life even when the storms are really blowing. It is courage that is formed in the heart; it is courage that is the ultimate act of faith; it is courage that keeps us open to life so that we can live in love and service.

Fear is a powerful emotion. We all feel it at times. The fright instinct is vital for our survival. Other forms of fear are less helpful, particularly those we create from within ourselves. These can spiral out of control and can lead to problems for ourselves and others. Just as it did in the cautionary tale of “Chicken Licken”.

So the next time you feel an acorn falls on your head, do not assume that it is a sign that the end of the world is near. It may just be an acorn falling from a tree, a sign of the natural change and flow of life.

Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "blog spot"

Fear and Love: Finding the Courage to Be

I will begin with a story from that “Holy Fool” Nasrudin

Nasrudin was walking alone at night when he saw a group of people approaching in the far distance. Instantly, his imagination began to toy with him: “They are surely robbers!” he thought. “No, why just robbers? Murderers, cutthroats! About to set upon me, a lonely traveller, leave me for dead and steal all my possessions! How are my wife and children going to cope without me?!” Nasrudin’s heart began to pound. His mouth became as dry as his palms became wet. He shook from head to toe and found himself breathing like an unfit man running to the finishing line of his first marathon.

Having thoroughly terrified himself, he stumbled into a nearby graveyard and cowered, shaking inside an open tomb, awaiting his fate. Meanwhile, the harmless strangers, worried by his dramatic behaviour, approached him and looked with concern down into the tomb. “What, pray, are you doing down there?” they asked. Nasrudin, calming down quickly, said: “Well, put it this way: I am here because of you and you are here because of me!”

I received a phone call from the local funeral directors Ashton Brooks the other day. They thought I was the perfect person for this particular “difficult” funeral. During the conversation Alison, the funeral arranger said that Clive, the funeral director had seen me in Altrincham, “looking very casual”. I could just imagine him saying it. Anyhow after a little banter and conversation I realised where and when he had seen me. I was out walking and talking with a friend. He had something big to talk to me about. It seems he had decided to propose to his long term partner. They have both been married before and have grown up children. It seems he had already sought permission from his children and his partners children, as well as her parents. It appeared that the only person who didn’t know was his partner. He had bought a ring, in consultation with his partners daughter and had booked the time and place at the gardens at Dunham Massey. The spot he chose was their “favourite bench”. Now he obviously had quite a bit of fear about this and it was this that he wanted to talk through with me. Not that I could give him what he needed. That said I could walk with him and listen as he cemented the faith and courage he needed to fulfil this beautiful act of love.

On Monday morning I received a beautiful message of love from him, it brought a tear to my eye, she had said yes. He sent me a lovely picture of the ring on her finger and of him holding her hand. It was beautiful to see love manifested there right in front of my eyes. Love gave him the courage to be what he needed to be. Just beautiful.

I had another conversation with an old friend. He has a salon in Leeds and of course was reopening this week. He told me was feeling a bit nervous about him. I told him that this was quite natural, that he was experiencing a kind of return to school feeling we would get on a Sunday night as kids; that horrible feeling in the stomach that would come over us. I said can you remember that feeling that would come sometime between watching “Bullseye” and “Surprise, Surprise”. I think that both the empathy and humour helped.

There is quite a bit of nervousness and fear around at the moment. Life is returning to normal and folk are experiencing all types of fear for a variety of reasons. Fear about the vaccines and whether they will work long term, as well as fears about complications potentially arising from the vaccines. Fears about businesses reopening, will they survive after the challenges of the last year or more. There are fears of the virus rising again as we reopen and other strains spreading. There are fears of life retuning to some sense of normality, will things ever be the same again. Will we be able to truly be together again. Yes, there are many fears and they are all understandable, they ought not to be dismissed or ridiculed. They need to be understood and empathised with. I have my own and I am sure we all do.

Now there is nothing new people experiencing these fears., they always with us, they are a part of our humanity. Ok they are manifesting in one particular area at this time, but the fears and feelings are not new. Neither by the way is the courage required to over come them, that will allow us to live in the love that will overcome the fear.  

Fear is a powerful emotion. It has the power to inhibit but it also has the power of allure. Fear comes in many forms. Forrest Church identified five different types, which he associated with the body, intellect, conscience, emotions and soul. These being:

“Fright” (Centred in the body), which is a kind of instinctive fear, designed to protect us from physical danger. It’s that feeling that makes us jump while watching a horror film or the thing that gets our blood pumping and awakens our senses and allows us to respond to physical danger, like when you get cut up in traffic.

The second being “Worry” (Centred in the intellect), this is a fear that is produced by our worst imaginings. Often they are not real and can be blown out of all reasonable proportions. Shortly before he died Mark Twain mused, “I am an old man and I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened”

The third being “Guilt” (Centred in the conscience). This is a fear of being caught out or found out due to something that we have done in our past. It’s a fear we often carry with us and can be projected into so much of our lives. It’s the feeling that can come over us as we pass through security at airports, even though there is no reason to feel it, or when walking out of stores and passing through the security senses, even though we know we haven’t stolen anything.

The fourth being “Insecurity” (centred in the emotions), this is fear prompted by feelings of inadequacy. It is a fear that breeds a need to seek approval from others. It’s form of Narcissism and forms deep self-consciousness which makes us unconscious to life itself.

The fifth and perhaps most debilitating is “Dread” (centred in the soul), a fear that is generated by life’s general uncertainty. In “Freedom from Fear” Church wrote “ ‘Man himself produces dread, wrote the Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. We manufacture it whenever we attempt to control things over which we hold no final authority. We reduce life to a battleground, where we struggle against insurmountable odds. Fearing every transition from certainty to uncertainty, we devote our full energy to protecting ourselves against loss. Dread is the opposite of trust. The more we dread death and dying, the more alarming life and living turn out to be.”

Yes fear has many faces and all of them powerful in their own ways. We each of us experience every type at different times in our lives. Think about those feelings of fear you have experienced recently, see if you can identify which of the five, or a mixture of the five you have been experiencing.

Fear is a natural human reaction to life, Fear is not the problem, the issue is the power that fear can have over us. The key is to find the courage to over come the fear and courage of course comes from love. I have seen some wonderful examples of this all week. My friend in Dunham Massey gardens being a beautiful example of this just last Monday. The key is to choose courage, it si to choose love over fear. As John 4 v 18 states

John 4:18

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

How though do we do this? How does love overcome the power of debilitating fear? How do we find the courage just to be?

 

Well it takes just a little faith and a little love to create the courage just be. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Which of course it is, but it is far from easy.

 

Courage in many ways is the essence of life, maybe it is our daily bread. Anais Nin once said “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” I’m sure we can all think of moments when our own lives have either expanded or shrunk in proportion to our courage. Courage itself comes from the French root “Cuer” meaning heart. To have courage is to have strength of heart. Courage is a consistent and sustaining love, it is a spiritual energy that sustains us in sickness and in health, in loss or disappointment.

It is said that there are only really two emotions fear and love. Well, it depends what we mean by that. To feel the emotion of fear is not to lack love, or courage or faith. The problem isn’t fear itself, rather it is the power that fear can have over us. The problem is being ruled by fear, to be paralysed by it. How often in life, do we say no to life because we have become paralysed by fear? Faith is about discovering the courage to be all that we can be do and to do in love.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to the size of our heart; life shrinks or expands in service to life itself. It’s about heart, it’s about courage, and it’s about being all that we can be.

To have courage is to have strength of heart and to live from our hearts in our ordinary everyday activities. Courage is a way of living and breathing it’s about living openly and vulnerably in the world. Courage comes in those ordinary acts of love as we walk through life. It is courage that allows us to learn that even when life has betrayed us, love is still present; it is courage that allows us to stay open to life even when it’s tough; it is courage that is formed in the heart; it is courage that is the ultimate act of faith; it is courage that keeps us open to life so that we can live in love.

This brings to mind a verse from one of my favourite hymns “Others call it God”

 

The verse goes like this...

 

“A picket frozen on duty,

A mother starved for her brood,

And Socrates drinking hemlock,

And Jesus on the rood;

An millions, who though nameless,

The straight, hard pathway trod –

Some call it consecration,

And others call it God.”

 

The straight hard pathway of faith is not easy...

 

The images depicted in this verse are of characters who had the courage to do what they believed they were there to do, whether a picket on duty, or a mother looking after her children or the likes of Jesus and Socrates who were willing to sacrifice their lives for love or truth...inspirations to me, inspirations to us all

 

Socrates was charged by the Athenian council with “corrupting the minds of the young, and of believing in deities of his own invention instead of the gods recognised by the state.”

 

He courageously contested the charges against him, but ultimately lost and as a result was condemned to die. He accepted the judgement of his peers, while responding with these immortal words “The difficulty is not so much to escape death...The real difficulty is to escape from doing wrong, which is far more fleet of foot.”

 

He did not fear death because he felt that it would take nothing from him of value. As he said to the court “I have never lived an ordinary life...I did not care for the things that most people care about – making money, having a comfortable home, high military or social rank.” Neither did he fear what death would bring which he saw as either the sweetest sleep or a journey to a better place, a place of justice. As he proclaimed “nothing can harm a good man either in life or after death.”

 

Socrates would rather have surrendered his life, than his integrity. Both in life as in death he perfectly illustrated the courage to be. He had the integrity and therefore courage to say “I have a more sincere belief than any of my accusers, and I leave to you and to God to judge me as it shall be best for me and for yourselves.”

 

“Jesus on the rood” (Jesus on the cross) like “Socrates drinking hemlock” is another incredible example of someone living out the courage to be, an example and beacon to us all. He was not immune from fear though. In the Gospel accounts of his life he rarely quoted scripture, and yet in his final moments he did. He did not quote the comforting 23^rd Psalm “I shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil for thou are with me”. No, instead he quoted the much starker 22^nd Psalm “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?” He did not quote the comforting words “My cup runneth over”, instead he cried out “I thirst”.

 

Some might say where is the courage here? Well it is in what comes next, as he utters “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In these words lies the essence of his message of radical love. For Socrates integrity gave him the strength to be; whereas for Jesus it was love; the love of God and the love of neighbour as for self. He surrendered himself utterly to his purpose and to his God as he uttered those immortal words “Father, I commend my life unto thy spirit.”

 

This is where we find the courage to truly be, to overcome the power of fear, through living in and through love, truth and integrity. Love will always overcome fear; love will always enable us to find the courage to truly be all that we can be. It is love that enabled the picket to stand in the freezing cold to stand up for what he believed in; it is love that motivated the mother to sacrifice herself for her children; it is love that enabled both Jesus and Socrates to make their ultimate sacrifices.

 

We will always know the emotion of fear, we will always feel it. We need it, it is a natural instinct. That said we need not be enslaved by it. To be free all we need do is live in integrity, live in love and the courage to simply be will shine out of us. In doing so not only do we liberate ourselves, but we will be a light to others who in turn may be inspired to liberate themselves and others too.

 

Let love and truth show us the way to be all that we can be...Let us find the courage to truly be.

Here's a video devotion based on this "blogspot" 

 

 

To Life: I could do with a bit more Zeal

There are times when I become aware of just how British I can be, it makes me chuckle and occasionally cringe.  A classic example would have been the day of my proposal to Sue at the water’s edge of Capernaum, looking out on the Sea of Galilee. Now this is not what exposed my Britishness,  that was an unexpectedly romantic moment, I surprised myself that day. No it was what followed that showed up my Britishness. The first example was a couple of hours later as we ate in a famous fish restaurant in a local kibbutz. Sue and myself were the only people there and as we were chatting with the waiter, I discovered that we shared an unexpected passion, a love for Leeds United. Because of this I decided that he should be the first person to know our news. Well he went crazy with excitement as did all the other staff working in the restaurant, with cries of “Mazel Tov”. There were other such reactions over the next few days including several young people picking up Jewish horns, in the shop where we went to buy the engagement ring. On hearing our news they ran around the shop, danced and celebrated in joy. Complete strangers just sharing in the joy of the occasion and wishing us well. It was wonderful, but a bit overwhelming and it made me realise just how British I actually am. This would not have happened back home.

Don’t get me wrong I am not a shrinking violet, but my passion is not displayed so publicly. Mine had been displayed in the search for the perfect spot, I had been on, as we reached the Sea of Galilee. I had stuck steadfast to the task, spurred on by passion and not satisfied until I had found the perfect place and moment. I also have a growing passion for life, as folk have heard me say many times. I “Choose Life” in all its blessings and curses. I sing the joy of living in all of its mystery.

I have noticed that within my own spirituality there are some Jewish flavours. Now while I am tee-totaler I do toast life..“To life” is a toast within the Jewish tradition. It is powerful representation of the faith, which at its core is about how to live more than just what to believe; at its core it conveys an optimistic attitude toward life, investing energy in living rather than in worrying about dying. It promotes the pleasures of life rather than focusing on all that is wrong. The emphasis is on this world rather than pinning our hopes on finding satisfaction in some world to come. The toast "to life" emphasises the original blessing that is life that God has given and seen as good. Think of Genesis I and its emphasis on the goodness of creation rather than what followed and the fall of Genesis II. As the sages teach 'in time to come, everyone will have to account for all the good things God created which he refused to enjoy.'

So it is no surprise that all the people we met following the proposal wanted to dance and sing and join in the celebration. It also showed me just how British I am. Oh how I wish I could release a little bit more of that zeal that I know is within me. Maybe we need to rescue British Zeal and not just British Steel.

Now “Zeal” is one of those words that is given a bit of a bad press. Too much passion in spiritual circles can be mistrusted. Also no one would want to be called a Zealot. I heard a lot about the Zealots as I learnt more about Jewish history particularly at the time of the destruction of the “Second Temple”. During the first century “The Zealots” were a political movement who sought to incite the people of the Judea Province to rise up against their Roman rulers. The word Zealot meant one who is zealous on behalf of God.

In the New Testament you see an example of Jesus acting in such a manner. This in the Temple when he turns over the tables and chases out the money changers who are trading in the Temple that was destroyed just a few decades later. Accounts of which were all written after the destruction of the “Second Temple”, may years after Jesus' death.

Today a “Zealot” is understood to be “a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.” So not someone you would expect a person of liberal spiritual leanings to be singing the praises of.

I am not of course. What I am talking of is “Zeal”.

I drink a non-alcoholic toast to life each and every single day. I need zeal for life to do so. Zeal is a natural aspect of our humanity. To awaken each day enthused (filled with Divine Spirit) and anticipation, wholeheartedly and with gusto to attend to what is in front of us is an innate human quality. Yet so often that light, that spark can be absent.

The key is to harness this zeal, this enthusiasm, in order to propel our lives with courage to their rightful purpose. Zeal is the toast to life, brought into being in our daily activities. By the way by not harnessing this zeal, and thus acting in life in loving ways, is to deny the greatest gift of all, life itself.  Life is the ultimate free gift, the ultimate Grace. What did we do to deserve it? Well nothng. It is gifted to us freely.

To live with zeal is essentially to be aroused by life itself. This is not a singular cellular experience, but a uniting one. It’s that expression of spontaneous joy even for strangers, as we experienced in Israel. It is to truly feel kinship with other people. In fact one sign that that zeal is not awake is to fail to see this kinship, is to see the other as different from self. A sign that our zeal is aroused is to feel a deep connection with all life. As Anais Nin has said “What everyone forgets is that passion is not merely a heightened sensual fusion but a way of life which produces, as in mystics, as ecstatic awareness of the whole of life.”

To live with zeal is about creating and repairing the fabric of life, beginning with our relationships with each other. It is love in action, which is a powerful and creative force, something we all possess, even if it is latent within us.

To live with zeal is to give of ourselves in loving service. It is the essence of the religious life. It is about doing our little bit for our human family. By the way it begins, and in many ways ends, with the little things. As Helen Keller so beautifully put it “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

It comes in the little things, thus saith the Lord.

This though is far from easy, to live a toast to life, every day, takes real courage. How many times do we get knocked down each and every day? I reckon it’s even harder if you re British, we do not like too much exuberance, too much zeal. It makes us feel a little too uncomfortable and self conscious.

Mark Nepo put it this way...

"In the face of this gritty, mysterious, and ever-changing dynamic we call being alive, it's nothing short of heroic that we are asked to choose life and living, again and again. Not just to put a good face on things while we're here, but because saying yes to life is how the worm inches its way through earth. It's how salmon leap their way upstream. It's how flowers grow out of stone. The word for such flowers, saxifrage, from the Latin, means stone breaker. Saying yes is the way the flower of the soul breaks through the stone of the world.

"But how do we do this? Some deep part of us knows and needs no instruction, while the part of us sore for meaning needs to uncover the practice of saying yes. . . .”

But how do we say yes?

Well it begins and it ends with the little things. With the things and the people in front of us. It is about giving ourselves and our attention to what is simply before us. This requires faith in life itself, despite those oh so many times we have fallen.

It begins by paying attention to the little things in front of us and all around us. This is what the Zen Buddhist would call our “Semu”, our work practice, our work. For as the “Sandokai”, says 'Each thing has its own intrinsic value.' This kind of activity affects other people in positive ways it begins to bring healing, no matter how small the task is. That said it isn’t just what we do it is the spirit in which we do what we do, with love for life, in zeal.

So today I’m going live my life as an offering, a toast to life, in all its mystery. I know I will falter many times. There are no doubt going to many sufferings ahead. I offer a toast to mortality and the original blessing that is life itself. And when my time comes I hope I can offer a good account for all the good things that life has offered for all to enjoy. In so doing I know I will  become a light of the world and in so doing I will begin to bring healing to the many tears in the fabric of this our shared world.

We all belong here.

Come and join in the celebration, come with me and lets sing a toast to life. A toast to the Majesty of mortality.

I’m going to end with this lovely little poem by Dawna Markova “Wide Open”

“Wide Open”

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

By Dawna Markova

Courage: We can be heroes every day

One thing about the modern multi-media age is that it throws up instant heroes. People can do a heroic act in some part of the world and if it is caught on film or the person is filmed shortly afterwards within hours it can have gone viral and people all over the world soon get know of their heroic deed. Well such a thing happened last week.

I'm sure you heard about  Charles Ramsey?

He became famous by responding to screams he heard coming from a home in his neighbourhood. He thought it was a domestic dispute and broke into the home to free three women who were held captive there. The three women turned out to be Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. They had been missing for ten years and were presumed dead. They had in fact been held prisoner in the Cleveland home that Ramsey had rescued them from. Ramsey did not consider himself a hero and said he was only doing what any right minded citizen would do and certainly did not feel he ought to rewarded for his actions and any rewards ought to be given to the three women. Nevertheless he has become a modern day hero and has been held up to acclaim all over the world. He has become a modern day hero, if only for one day.

Heroes can be found in every single human tradition. They have existed ever since we began telling stories around the camp fire. Ancient Greek and Roman mythology spoke of Aneaus, Hercules, Odysseus and Theseus. The Hebrew Scriptures describe the heroic deeds of David, Joseph, Moses and Samson. Similar stories can be found in every culture. They describe heroic figures who stood up for righteousness and made a difference in their time and place.

The stories we tell today are full of heroic characters. We only need look at the recent remaking of the comic strip super heroes such as Spiderman, Batman, The X-Men, or Star Wars, Harry Potter, Dr Who, the Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These are modern day heroes, but they are no different in character to the heroes of ancient times.

The heroes of ancient times were endowed with great strength and were often descendants of the gods; while the modern day heroes tend to be superhuman mutations. Both the ancient and modern seem beyond the reach of mere mortals. Even momentary acts of heroism seem to be outside the scope of ordinary people. Charles Ramsay has become a modern day hero because he did something outside of the norm and also reacted to what he did in such a humble and almost startled way.

So is the song true, can we all be heroes just for one day?

I was recently chatting with my brother law. In the middle of the conversation my niece Aimee asked what the difference between heroism and courage was? Dave struggled to answer and I thought about it for a short while and then said something like “heroism is a single act a momentary thing that a person does on the spur of the moment without really thinking about the consequences, it is also something that is recognised by others. Where as courage seems a quiet consistent ordinary activity that almost goes unnoticed and is rarely glorified. It's about sticking at something despite the presence of real fear. As I see it courage is something that materialises in the ordinary.”

I recently came across the following, it speaks beautifully and powerfully to me about the everyday characteristics of courage:

 "The Art of facing Things" By Mark Nepo

"What people have forgotten is what every salmon knows.  Salmon have much to teach us about the art of facing things.  In swimming up waterfalls, these remarkable creatures seem to defy gravity.  It is an amazing thing to behold.  A closer look reveals a wisdom for all beings who want to thrive.

What the salmon somehow know, is how to turn their underside—from centre to tail—into the powerful current coming at them, which hits them squarely, and the impact then launches them out and further out and up the waterfall; to which their reaction is, again, to turn their underside back into the powerful current that, of course, again hits them squarely; and this successive impact launches them further out and up the waterfall.  Their leaning into what they face, bounces them further and further along their unlikely journey.

From a distance, it seems magical, as if these mighty fish are flying, conquering their element.  In actuality, they are deeply at one with their element, vibrantly and thoroughly engaged in a compelling dance of turning-toward-and-being-hit-squarely that moves them through water and air to the very source of their nature.

In terms useful to the life of the spirit, the salmon are constantly faithful in exposing their underside to the current coming at them.  Mysteriously, it is the physics of this courage that enables them to move through life, as they know it, so directly.  We can learn from this very active paradox; for we, too, must be as faithful to living in the open if we are to stay real in the face of our daily experience.  In order not to be swept away by what the day brings, we too, must find a way to lean into the forces that hit us so squarely.

The salmon offer us a way to face truth without shutting down.  They show us how leaning into our experience, though we don’t like the hit, moves us on.  Time and again, though we’d rather turn away, it is the impact of being revealed, through our willingness to be vulnerable; that enables us to experience both mystery and grace”

Courage in many ways is the essence of life, maybe it is our daily bread. Anais Nin once said “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” I think that there is something very powerful in these nine simple words. I’m sure we can all think of moments when our own lives have either expanded or shrunk in proportion to our courage. Courage itself comes from the French root “Cuer” meaning heart. To have courage is to have strength of heart. Courage is a consistent and sustaining love, it is a spiritual energy that sustains us in sickness and in health in loss or disappointment.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to the size and inclusiveness of our vision and our heart; life shrinks or expands in service of high and noble ideals that allows life to evolve to a higher plain. It is not just about risking everything and overcoming fear, that may well be bravery or even heroism, but I'm not sure it's courage. Many people risk and sacrifice their lives but not always in the service of love and life, they do so in a destructive way that is against life. Such people are fearless, but I’m not sure that they are courageous.

So how do we know if what we are doing is expanding or shrinking life?

Well during the 3^rd century the theologian Origin came up with a two part test to determine whether a person was interpreting scripture rightly. I think that we can expand this same test and apply it to how we live our lives in 21^st century Britain. Origin’s formula claims that our course of action must always meet two criteria it must be both useful to us and at the same time worthy of God.

This to me seems to be the essence of courage it must be useful to humanity and at the same time worthy of God. To have courage is to have strength of heart and to live from our hearts in our ordinary everyday activities.

Howard Thurman said the following on "Courage"

"There is a quiet courage that comes from an inner spring of confidence in the meaning and significance of life. Such courage is an underground river, flowing far beneath the shifting events of one's experience, keeping alive a thousand little springs of action. It has neither trumpets to announce it nor crowds to applaud; it is best seen in the lives of men and women who do their work from day to day without hurry and without fever. It is the patient waiting of the humble person whose integrity keeps his spirit sweet and his heart strong. Wherever one encounters it, a lift is given to life and vast reassurance invades the being. To walk with such a person in the daily round is to keep company with the angels"

Courage is a way of living and breathing it’s about living openly and vulnerably in the world. It is about bringing this attitude of Origin’s into life itself, it needs to be useful to us and worthy of God. We can bring this attitude into any situation, even the most difficult. It is not just present in the middle of a crisis when all is going wrong it is also there living and breathing as life returns to normal at the end of a crisis as we start to rebuild life when the storms have blown away. Courage comes in those ordinary acts of love as we walk slowly through life. It is courage that allows us to learn that even when life has betrayed us, love is still present. 

It is courage that allows us to stay open to life even when the storms are really blowing. It is courage that is formed in the heart; it is courage that is the ultimate act of faith; it is courage that keeps us open to life so that we can live in ways that are useful to everyone and worthy of God.

Yes we can all be heroes, we can perform heroic acts, we can all be heroes even if it is just for one day. Courage though is something more, something deeper, something that comes from the heart, from that place deep within each of us...it is something that has to be useful to life and worthy of God.

I’d like to end this little chip of a blog with the following words on courage by J. Ruth Gendler.

“Courage has roots. She sleeps on a futon on the floor and lives close to the ground. Courage looks you straight in the eye. She is not impressed with power trippers, and she knows first aid. Courage is not afraid to weep, and she is not afraid to pray, even when she is not sure who she is praying to. When courage walks, it is clear that she has made the journey from loneliness to solitude. The people who told me she is stern were not lying; they just forgot to mention that she is also kind.”