Our Greatest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. (Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. [From Chapter 7, Section 3])

According to Wiki, this quotation and various pieces of it have been used over and over again and attributed to everyone from W.E.B. Du Bois to Nelson Mandela. However, it's original source--or, at least in the complete statement here, comes from Marianne Williamson.

I include the quotation as somewhat of a continuation of a sermon that I preached yesterday entitled, "Who do you favor." In that sermon, I tried to extrapolate on Jesus' underscoring of the scriptural claim that we have been made in the likeness or the image of God. Even though the sermon was long--longer than I wanted it to be anyway, I still felt that I did not have enough time to even begin to explain the possible joys (and potential pitfalls) of such a claim.

Frankly, I trembled a bit preaching that sermon. Even though the statement is entirely scriptural, there is just something nerve-racking about suggesting that we might be something more than wretched sinners saved by grace. And we are most certainly that. But having been claimed by this grace, do we dare lift our heads? Or, are we better off remaining on our knees, praying that God will not change his mind and lap them off?

It is a struggle is it not? How do we remain humble and always grateful; while, at the same, time daring to lift our hearts and step forward in courageous faith?

I think that this is why Williamson's words are so often quoted by motivating coaches and commencement speakers, politicians and poets alike. For it states aloud something that is surely true for many of us. Namely, that is not limitation but potential that is the more crippling. It is fear of our light--a light that has been dimmed so thoroughly within us that we might have forgotten it is there.

Part of this, of course, is well-intended. Often times, we squelch the light because we have seen how it can be misused in one way or another. Rather than a beacon, it can be used as a flood lamp or pulsating neon marquis, pointing not to the wonder and glory of God but rather drawing attention only to itself. We see well who we do not wish to be. And this keeps us from risking any of who we are...

But at the same time, there is something within us that resonates with Williamson's words. We know that she is right. And we would embrace her invitation--if only we knew how to rightly reveal the light that surely must be within us.

Jesus' tells a parable in which three people are given three different sums. They are then sent into the world, apparently with the expectation of doing something with them. One of the three takes what has been entrusted and buries it in the ground so that it will not be lost--a reasonable response, particularly given the bearish nature of our times! But in the story, this is not acceptable. Indeed, those who ventured their gift are praised while the one who hid it is judged very harshly-- "even what you have will be taken away."

We get it. Life is for living. But perhaps the investment in not so hard. Perhaps God is calling us not to create the light or borrow it from someone else. Perhaps, the nature of the light or the investment that Jesus refers to, is simply that which has been given uniquely to us. In other words, maybe our contributions flow from our unique passions and the very things that we long to share. What a great revelation this would be! In this way, the return is not what I produce but how who I am has brought light into the world in one way or another.

Help us, O Lord. Help us to be who we really are...

BTW, I took that picture this weekend at Table Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway!