More of that Perfect Love, Please

This quote socked me between the eyes:

"Religion is almost entirely cultural conformity and fear based. But “perfect love casts out all fear" (1 John 4:18). If your motivation is still fear or shame based, then you are still building your container, which is necessary, but it does not demand any real love of God or neighbor yet. Most of us begin with creating the skeleton, but it takes years and usually some suffering to find the meat, muscle, and the real message of the Gospel. It is probably easiest to begin conservative, since liberals do not tend to respect the basic skeleton of faith or any limits to their seeming freedom. In the second half of life you might look a little more like a liberal, but the real difference is that you have been overtaken by love and let go of fear. That is the meat, the muscle, and the message." --Richard Rohr

I am so tired of my fear. My left brain "knows" that I am completely loved and accepted by the Creator of the Universe who is also my Abba Father, but my right brain still has so many wounds that I respond out of fear far too often. Lord heal me. Heal us all.