The Angel Said, “Fear Not”

It was 17 years ago that I was blessed by an angel of God speaking a clear, unequivocal and prophetic truth that just now has its meaning become clear. Ms. Elizabeth O’Connor, a writer, teacher, counselor, and missionary to the inner-city. She was a staff member of The Church of The Savior in Washington D.C., since 1953, and served as a support minister to that faith community, working with many of their mission programs. The words that follow spring from a program called “30 Good Minutes”, and at the time I first heard these words I would often reflect with friends and family that I understood and would share my views of the importance of preparing for change. It sounded good, and may have been of some help and comfort to others, but I was missing the point. Until recently I really had no idea of the foundational feelings that anchored Ms. O’Connor’s words and what they really meant.

In the last month, I was informed that my job would end, and thankfully I have about 11 months to secure another job. However, it is in the moment that I received the news I realized that I was now “in that hard place between the no longer and the not yet. The old is coming to an end or has ended, and we are not at all certain that we will find what it is we are to do next. It is often a time of self-doubt and of wobbling self-esteem.”

Elizabeth O’Conner was speaking directly to me. She gently described that “every seven years God takes us out into the wilderness so that we can hear the coming of the Angel. It is time to be born again, but first comes the dying -- dying to old fears, old conditions, old habits and expectations, a time of emptying and waiting -- waiting to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. What psychology calls a transition stage, Scripture calls a wilderness experience”.

I thought I was a person of faith, a believer in God. I expressed it with my words, and at times with my deeds. I had often spoken of “wilderness experiences”. I had experienced tragic death, fear and joy! But I had not experienced an absolute outcome so intimately mine! Feelings of extreme frustration gripped me! There was no changing this outcome. I was going to be unemployed! My income was going to stop! I was angry and afraid all at the same time. I felt so insecure, and betrayed! It was there that the secret to my growth lay. In these long buried scars now fully exposed must be confronted.

Here I experienced the grace of Ms. O’Connor’s prophecy. She shared that “a creative Work is connected with our deepest being, with the divinity that we carry in ourselves. It is an experience of liberation and of power and joy. It holds the mystery of Christ. This is why it is essential that we find the work that is ours to do”. In my long buried pain lay the fertile ground in which the Holy Spirit was cultivating new life in me, for me for my family and others.

Today I do not know what the future holds, and I am ok with that. The gift I was given by Elizabeth O’Conner 17 years ago reassures me that God is at work in and through my life. Abraham endured the wilderness and God was with him. I am in the wilderness and God is with me. I am called by God to Live this gift of life moment by moment with the full and complete awareness that I am loved and to share that love with all whom I know and meet!

May The Peace of Christ Be With You Always!

Amen.