Better Fears

O God
it is so easy
to be afraid
to be made afraid.

Demagogues of every sort
have always counted on our fears
to scare us into submission.

Politicians and preachers
commissars and evangelists
make people afraid—
afraid of what will happen to them
afraid of death
and therefore of life
afraid of differences
strangers
joy.

The fearmongers are so successful
because they find in us
such willing subjects.

But the gospel of perfect love
comes to us
to cast out fear—
from our beginning.

Some of us
have never affirmed
our first birth—
have never said “Good!” to our emergence
“Very good!” to our creation.
Be midwife to our self-respect
and mother to our growth.

Perfect love
will cast out fear
and when You are through with us
we will be fearless.
In the mean time
at least help us
to move from petty fears
to better ones;
from fears of hell
to admissions of joylessness;
from quaking before opinions and modes and fashions
to fearing
loss of our integrity
and untruth in our very souls.

We would say “Bravo!”
to
our birth
our re-birth
Your will that created us
our choice to be
and to become

amen.

Better Than Nice and Other Unconventional Prayers by Frederick Ohler. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989. 28-29.