Bishop Charleston on Overcoming Fear with Joy and Humor

Bishop Charleston on Overcoming Fear with Joy and Humor

seibert women

"I have an assignment for you this weekend: don't be afraid. Wait, before you roll your eyes, hear me out. I am not talking about greeting-card spirituality, where you just put on a happy face and pretend nothing bad is happening around you. I am talking about taking some time over the next three days to seriously confront fear in your life and feel its power over you diminish. How?”

Like most spiritual healing, it can seem deceptively simple. First, find a quiet moment when you won't be disturbed. Then, sit upright in a comfortable position. Close your eyes, open your hands, and breathe in and out, aware of each breath. Sit quietly. Don't pray at this time. Open your heart to the Spirit and feel a sacred presence entering your life. Abide in it. Let it permeate your whole body, as if you were being bathed in light. 

Join me in doing this for at least ten minutes once a day over the next three days. Join me in the fight against fear: become a receiver of light."—Bishop Steven Charleston's Facebook Page.

Bishop Charleston often writes about fear. He remembers how fear loomed over us like a suffocating cloud during the pandemic and now during political unrest. Fear has a smell, an odor, a way of speaking, a walk, a glance, a posture. Fear lies, getting "bottomless" Pinocchio's Factchecks from The Washington Post.

 Fear wakes us in the night. Fear keeps us from saying our prayers because we do whatever we can to confront and overcome it. We can try to hide it, avoid it, or put it in the closet of our mind and body, but it sneaks through a keyhole when we are not looking.

Fear comes without invitation. It is a bully, pushing its way through the happiness of our days to stand front and center, shouting in an outside voice so we cannot hear the preciousness of our days. Fear also knows how to whisper so softly that we do not recognize its presence.

Charleston gives fear one more attribute I was not aware of. He says fear is a coward that shrinks like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz when water is poured on her, and that it shrinks when it hears joy and laughter. Bishop Charleston says, "Laughter is to fear what garlic is to a vampire. It chases away fear by revealing the depth of life, its vibrancy, and the numerous possibilities that make our worst fears seem unlikely. Humor and hope drain worry and anxiety of all their power, leaving them sulking in a corner while joy walks in through the front door." 

So, Bishop Charleston tells us to think of the funniest thing we have experienced when fear sneaks in. My experience is that laughter often comes from something humorous I have read in a story, seen in a movie or television series, or experienced in my life.

As I remember playing with my children and grandchildren when they were small, I came upon another answer. Being with children is an automatic source of laughter. We couldn't be with them during the pandemic or after they went away to school, but we could have video calls, FaceTime, and even Zoom calls with them. Just the sound of their voices can make a difference. Children make us do funny things, like sitting on the floor, making silly faces, or speaking an ancient language. If this is not possible, surround yourself with friends who bring laughter to your life or spend time outdoors in the sunshine.

Of course, there are many other ways to deal with fear, but for today, we will try this one until fear is reduced to a manageable level.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Gould: Kindness and Those Who Taught Us About Acts of Kindness

Gould: Kindness

“Good and kind people outnumber all others by thousands to one. The tragedy of human history lies in the enormous destructive potential of rare acts of evil, not in the high frequency of evil people. Complex systems can only be built step by step, whereas destruction requires but an instant. Thus, in what I like to call the Great Asymmetry, every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoticed and invisible as the ‘ordinary’ efforts of a vast majority.”—Stephen Jay Gould in The New York Times (9/26/2001).

A longtime friend, Dr. Steve Thomason, Dean of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, sent out this nearly twenty-five-year-old Gould quote some time ago for all of us to consider. Humans seem unable to avoid being dualistic, viewing life as a well-balanced struggle between good and evil. It is difficult not to think about how evil, failure, and missing the mark have greater power over us in our lives. 

We received all “As” except for one “B” on our report card. We agonize, and all we can remember is that “B.” We recall only the one line we missed in our class play, while discounting the brilliant lines we delivered. We obsess over rejection letters rather than celebrating our college acceptance or recent job promotion. Most physicians think daily about their missed diagnoses and forget the thousands they made correctly. We forgot to visit our friend the week or day before she died, but in our grief, we discount all the hundreds of other visits we made during her illness. 

The morning, noon, evening, and late-night news can feel overwhelming when we hear about human tragedies, deaths, and violence. Perhaps on a good day there is one last thirty-second segment about someone’s kindness. 

Gould, an evolutionary biologist and historian of science, contends that the forces in the world are not evenly balanced and that reality is overwhelmingly composed of kindness, not evil. Gould believes the problem is that these acts of kindness are so small that they go unnoticed. By contrast, evil and failure stop us in our tracks, immediately capture our attention, and blind us with their glaring presence.

How can we put on a new pair of glasses and start seeing the world differently? That is the path to even more obvious acts of kindness. It starts with a simple step called gratitude. I have many friends who survive unbelievable tragedies by making and reciting a gratitude list each day, most often at night before they go to sleep. I have spiritual friends who even send me their daily gratitude lists. Their actions encourage me to do the same. 

Gould challenges us to remember the kind acts we often overlook, especially when we feel overwhelmed by an evil act and begin to believe that darkness has overtaken our world.

When I think of kindness, I remember our friend Reed, who died much too soon but left behind so many acts of kindness that continue to live on in this world.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

In the Midst of the City, the Gospel and God's Politics

In the Midst of the City, the Gospel and God’s Politics

By Barkley Thompson

“As Christians, we must not begin with our secular political beliefs and then use the Gospel to prop them up. Rather, we must begin with the Gospel and let it shape our politics.”—Barkley Thompson, In the Midst of the City, the Gospel and God’s Politics.

I was once in three book groups, all reading Barkley Thompson’s second book, In the Midst of the City.

The book’s first section is a collection of sermons he wrote while serving as dean of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Houston.

Barkley reminds us of Marcus Borg’s story about the two processions in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, entering from opposite gates. Pilate enters as the representative of the Roman power of war, while Jesus enters, symbolizing God’s politics, the power of peace. “For Christians, leaving God’s politics out of the church is not an option. The Gospel, however, is not partisan, and God is neither conservative nor progressive.”

Barkley constantly reminds us of Karl Barth’s mandate to read both the Bible and the newspaper. Interpret the newspaper by the Bible, never the other way around. For example, in the wake of the great tragedy of the killings and wounding at the Boston Marathon, the Gospel leads Barkley to remind us to look for the helpers, those who reach out to the harmed. 

The second section addresses what it means to be a Christian and an American in light of the Gospel. Patriotism differs from nationalism. The patriot gives his heart to the best that patriotism represents, even in the face of fear and assault by those who have lost an understanding of liberty.

The third section comprises essays published on his blog in the Houston Chronicle. They reflect his personal discernment process as he seeks to see God’s vision for the world. The chapter titles speak for themselves: “I Own Guns, and I Believe in Gun Control,” “Of Orlando and the Virtue of Embrace,” and “On Civil War Monuments.”

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/