I re-watched Amazing Grace the other night and a line hit me like a ton of bricks the first watch whacked me with equal force once again:
“When they stop being afraid, their compassion will return.”
The line is spoken by Barbara, who is the woman who speaks life into Wilberforce’s broken dream of helping end slavery in England.
When we stop being afraid, our compassion will return.
What makes us close down our heart, brains and spirits to others? To the Light that would expose us?
Fear.
Perfect love casts out fear, yes? Love is both a grace and discipline, a willing choice to go against the grain of our fear and opt for the loving decision in the face of what feels like certain death — emotionally speaking, at least. Love is a willing act of bearing our trembling chest to God, letting God do open-heart surgery on us until, like the Ole’ Grinch, our hearts grows a few sizes, filling up with love — the Love that is a grace, the love that casts out fear. Love that is a light, which illumines the fact that we are all connected, and there is, in fact, nothing to fear, for the Other is in us, we are in the Other, and All is in held in the love of the One Who Is Love.
I saw an ad the other night and there was some line or other that said something like, “What is the opposite of love?” And I answered, “Fear.” this was not the answer the advertisers were looking for, but … so what …
We think that the opposite emotion of love is hate … it’s not. It is fear, which in turn creates hate and anger and a whole host of other emotions. But fear is at the base.
Nicely done …
This is really profound.
That movie was full of great lines.
Thanks for the inspiration - I watched it at the theater with bored kids - time to watch it alone!
Sonja — I think you are on, %100 — hate is a spin-off reaction to fear, and it is fear at the base. I wonder what the ad was looking for as an answer…
What helps you with fear?
Hi Jewls — yeah, different experience watching with bored kids; hard to pay attention esp with Brit accents. Worth watching alone!
jemila, i love this line & i am glad you reminded me it was in there! the thing that really struck me about the movie which we saw when it first came out was the incredible dedication he had to keep on pressing into the issue regardless of failure & what others said & pressure from the otherside to just “give it up.” all for the sake of love. i like the way you put it “love is both a grace and a discipline…” thanks for sharing…
Kathy, thanks for stopping by. I also was very inspired by Wilberforce’s dedication. I also was heartened that in a way he had to come aside “give up,” fall in love and then come back with new vigor, insight, so that, with the turning of the tide creating a kairos time, at last light broke through and he got to lay his head on his pillow knowing that, in England, “The slave trade is no more.”
Beautiful reflection. Thank you.
Hi Pistol! Glad to “see” you. I hope you don’t have to have any more hospital food for a long time.