DAILY REFLECTIONS for April 17th

LOVE AND FEAR AS OPPOSITES

All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Page 49

"Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there." I don't know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates very clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself. ¶ I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn't know that one of the definitions of "courage" is "the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear." Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear. ¶ During the times I didn't have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy.

Daily Reflections reprinted with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.