Friday: Tasting Chaos and Tasting Cosmos
WEEK 22
FRIDAY
TASTING CHAOS AND TASTING COSMOS
1 John 4:17-18
We said yesterday that the society in the Acts was the most completely free from fear of any society before or since. The word of boldness had become flesh in a group. Not because there was nothing to fear, but because they were now unafraid of fear. In the light of the vast adequacy that had taken possession of them there was nothing to fear, for they could make something out of everything that came upon them. Threats? They turned threats into testimonies. The more they were threatened, the more they testified. Beatings? They turned beatings into blessings; after the beating they left the council rejoicing (see Acts 5:41). The beatings only beat the glory out. Prisons? Prisons only freed their spirits for opportunity to write immortal epistles to the churches. Death? Death became unbelievably impossible, for deathlessness reigned in their bosoms. Poverty? They had chosen to be poor for Jesus’ sake because they were infinitely rich in him. Lies and false witness? Lies, when they fell upon them, turned into light, as in the case of Stephen; for the more they lied about him, the more his face shone. The future? They knew that Jesus is Lord, and that he held the future in his hand.
A psychiatrist said to me, “He who is tasting fear is tasting chaos, but he who is tasting faith is tasting cosmos.” These people were tasting cosmos; life was an integrated and adequate whole. Chaos was over; creation had come. They knew that these creative forces within them were adequate to transform every situation, every problem, every injustice, every opposition—everything—into opportunity. When you know you can do that, then there is no place for fear.
This fear was not mere bravado. It had a quiet dignity about it, the kind that Jesus had, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13 RSV). It was the calm that is at the center of a cyclone. It was the calm of creative assurance—assurance that anything can be met and used.
O Jesus, put your creative calm within our bosoms so that we stand in front of everything as it comes and goes in your calm and in your courage. For when we are unafraid, we live. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: By my calm courage people shall this day recognize that I’ve been with Jesus.