The things that come out of his mouth.

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Oh, not... just...  I had to laugh when I put that jelly and peanut butter onto bread for the first time.  Or was it chocolate into peanut butter?

Something about this has been something I have suggested for a very long time.  There are only two things you can have.  You can have faith.  Faith in God.  Faith that He will take care of you, even in the valley of the shadow of death.  Faith that things work out for the right, and if you are with Him, that includes you.  Faith in what He is, the Truth, the Light, and other right things.  Or you have fear.  Fear of death, fear of pain, fear of even work, fear of everything, anything, you can imagine.  You get one choice.

As to friends and family, who cling to fear?  I have found that trying to root it out only leads them right back to zero.  You can, for a time, help them begin to walk away from the fear.  But, the next time you speak with them, they are right back to their fetal position, worrying about all they had temporarily given up just moments, or days, before.  They cling to fear, as if it could save them.  After enough times, you just have to quit trying.  They will, if they can, stop interacting with you if you prove to powerful against their fears.  You become the problem, another thing to fear.  And feared I am.

Those who suggest they are not afraid, but live in a constant state of near panic?  You can see it in them.  Afraid the neighbors have something nicer.  Afraid their children will disobey, dishonor them.  Afraid their family hates them, or only wants them for what they can get.  Afraid of their own shadow, their past, being wrong.  Afraid, even, most often, to laugh.  I have seen these.  They would frighten me, induce it in me, if not for my faith.  Thankfully, my God is greater than their fear.  They could not know my God or they would not know fear.  Doesn't matter what they suggest.

I quite enjoy not having fear... most of the time.  Oh, it catches me out.  A stray worry, about my mother, or brother.  Little worries about my nieces.  Concerns about locals I have come to love as family.  A couple of younger men who are so madly driven they hurt themselves often at work.  Well, and their families.  The weather.  The future.  Money.  The house.  But, when I realize I am worrying, a short prayer... leaving things in His hands, with gratitude for all He has done... changes the whole thing.  Flips it from a growing darkness to a pleasantly overcast day, or from cold bitter showers to life giving rains.  He doesn't require us to walk in darkness, even on dark days.

Your choice.  Fear, or faith.  Now... I can't make a horse drink, but I can lead it to water.  The very waters of life.  Death, in time, you will see merely as the second birth... third?  Third.  And pain, here, endured... of the soul, flesh, mind?  Are mere graces for the future.  But that's... you have to do it.  I can throw a liferope, a buoy, or else, to help.  But you have to take it.  He even has it, so that if you merely take it out of hedging your future, out of fear, you may find a way.  Though, it will be a lessor way.  Still, a lessor way in heaven is far superior to the options.

Sadly, I'm not sure how many priests even believe these things in these times.  They would call me, often, a Jesus freak.  Seriously.  I am... cautious around most priests, many of whom have been taught specifically to be milquetoast.  While it is a marathon, not a sprint... neither is it a race with no end or rules.  Still, there is the magisterium and the doctors of the church.  Not to be undone by the limp-wristed, literally and proverbially.  Not just priests, it seems to have afflicted many men of the cloth, and in the worst ways.  They have surrendered, many of them, to the ways of the world.  I just won't.  Amen.

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That was a fast response.