Confronting Fears Through the Power of God's Love

shame wants to make us run away and to escape and to avoid and to look away or to pretend or to hide but instead you gotta swim towards the shark that if you look directly at it if you face it with a sense of calmness and openness and non-defensiveness it can actually delegitimize what shame wants to do kind of like a shark is to terrorize us [00:01:31]

because of my inadequacies which i know are present and are great in some ways i feel like i'm more aware of all the time because of my brokenness because of my weakness because of the wrong things that i have done because of bad choices that i have made how could god love someone like me [00:01:57]

and so our invitation is instead of living in that shame instead of running from it hiding it to turn and swim towards the shark and that might involve fear that might involve embarrassment that's okay because those very events those very facts about ourselves the very things that i have done wrong as i experience forgiveness from god and entering into a new way of life become the sources for experiencing god's love [00:03:37]

that swimming towards the shark as scary as that may sound is actually the way to experience more deeply god's love i was listening to somebody who was teaching this past week in old talk and they were just quoting the most famous verse in the bible john 3 16 for god so loved the world he gave his only son [00:04:05]

he gave his only son that whoever trusts him will never die or perish but receive eternal interacting with god life starting right now and this person was saying that verse ought to fill you with gratitude and joy not ought of obligation not now feel guilty and shame if you're not feeling happy when you hear those words but it's an invitation [00:04:28]

that is what the what god wants and it's love it is love it is the experience of being loved that enables us to swim towards the shark so old uncle screwtape writes about the mystery and the power of the love of god now he's writing from the perspective of a devil who does not believe there could be such a thing [00:04:55]

and he has when he was writing to his nephew wormwood inadvertently written as though the love of god is real and of course that can get you into trouble in hell so here's what he writes my dear woman i've been thinking very hard about the question in your last letter if as i've clearly shown all selves are by their very nature in competition [00:05:18]

and therefore the enemy's idea of love is a contradiction in terms what becomes of my reiterated warning that he really loves the human vermin and really desires their freedom and continued existence i hope my dear boy you've not shown my letters to anyone not that it matters of course anyone could see the appearance of heresy into which i have fallen is purely accidental [00:05:36]

members of his faction have frequently admitted that if we ever came to understand what he means by love the war would be over and we should re-enter heaven if we ever came to understood what he means by love the war would be over and we should re-enter heaven and that's the invitation for god so loved the world [00:08:36]

so now today the shark will come i don't know what the shark is for you maybe it's a memory maybe it's your body maybe it's guilt maybe it's habit maybe it's fear today right now instead of running from it instead of fleeing it instead of empowering it by giving it the status to be this chronic cloud over your life swim towards the shark [00:09:02]

look directly at it here's what i invite you to do this is what i did today at some point maybe right now go where you can be alone and look into a mirror and see your face and tell yourself you are loved by god you with your body your past your brokenness your experiences your weaknesses your sins you are deeply loved by god [00:09:31]

today look in the mirror know the love of god and swim toward the shark i'll see you next time [00:10:18]