Sweeping Away Fear and Staying Well

by Pringle Franklin

Of course we are staying home. And thankful to have a backyard. When I sit in my ramshackle garden and watch the honeybees fly among the flowers, I feel at ease. 

Life has slowed to a crawl, like a quiet summer afternoon when I was seven or eight years old, loping around my leafy dead-end street with skinned knees and dark-brown pigtails, searching for something to do. Now, thanks to the South Carolina governor’s request that folks stay put, my days are filled with loose, billowing hours at home. 

With nowhere to go but out back, I have rediscovered the pleasure of laying myself down in the grass and looking up at the eggshell blue sky. Minute by minute, the scene shifts subtly. Puffy clouds drift past the budding limbs of the pecan trees. The black figure of a cawing raven beats its wings up to a lofty perch. Grass blades tickle my outstretched arms. I am as contented as the black cat snoozing beside me.

As the American poet Mary Oliver says so eloquently in her famous poem,

“A Summer Day”:
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?  

Yet my peace bubble pops when I bang through the screen door to the kitchen and receive the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic, or overhear a podcast projecting brutal and dire consequences for the global economy; fear seizes hold of me.

It’s almost a physical feeling, like hands squeezing my throat. Instinctively I want to shove this monster away before it can close in. The Bible teaches us not to be afraid, but to actively trust in God. 

Psalm 27:1 New Life Version (NLV)

The Lord is my light and the One who saves me. Whom should I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom should I be afraid?

Let’s face it. Fear is the father of selfishness. Fear also creates anxiety, stress, and even panic; ironically, this can lower our immune systems. 

There are tools available to catapult us out of this downward spiral. I would like to share a daily prayer meditation created to protect and nourish. Now, I do not wish to wade into murky waters about why some people get sick and others don’t. Humans have been debating such questions for centuries. I am humbly offering this practice as a gift to those who are open to trying it.

I began using this “holy thinking” in early March, when Sam, and then Clay, took to their beds, sick with something like the corona virus (we still aren’t sure what it was).  

As their care giver, I was unavoidably exposed. During five days in which Sam was quarantined to our bedroom and I was bringing his meals on trays and washing his dishes, I experienced vague body aches and heavy limbs. Signs that my body was under assault by the virus. However, through this powerful meditation, I was strengthened: physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Psalm 34:4 New Life Version (NLV)

4 I looked for the Lord, and He answered me. And He took away all my fears.

By God’s grace, I did not get sick. Now I am continuing this practice as an antidote to fear and Corona obsession. Every day I am grateful for the peace and strength that it brings. Although we are isolated from our normal routines, friends, extended family, and community, nothing can isolate us from our Creator.

Romans 8:38-39 New Life Version (NLV)38 For I know that nothing can keep us from the love of God. Death cannot! Life cannot! Angels cannot! Leaders cannot! Any other power cannot! Hard things now or in the future cannot! 39 The world above or the world below cannot! Any other living thing cannot keep us away from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Healing Meditation 

Set a timer for at least 20 minutes on your phone. (If you are new to sitting in holy silence, start at 10 minutes and increase by several minutes each day until you reach your goal.) 

If possible, take this exercise outside near trees, flowers, and the reassuring presence of nature. Sit comfortably in a chair with your back straight and your feel firmly planted. Go barefoot if you wish to feel more grounded. If you are limber, you may also sit on the ground with your legs crossed or stretched out in front. 

Close your eyes. Picture the love and healing light of God coming toward you. For me, I can best receive this by picturing Jesus Christ standing there with light rays beaming out. I see the Lord’s light as being golden.

On your inhale, visualize drawing the golden light into yourself. On the exhale, concentrate on sending this healing light throughout your body. Do this for several breaths; maintain your focus on receiving the light and love of God, perhaps feeling it wash over you in waves. When your mind begins to wander, simply return to this idea.

As you feel ready, you may vary the exercise like this:

• Inhale God’s healing as before; exhale by circulating it to the cells of your physical self.  Repeat twice more.
• This time on the exhale, focus on circulating the energy throughout your mental self. Repeat twice more.
• This time on the exhale, circulate the healing throughout your spiritual self. Repeat twice more.

Ask God to bring whatever He wants to give you. Allow him to apply his healing power wherever you most need help. Of course you may raise specific requests for others or yourself, then let them go. Try to be open to God’s perfect will and trust in his supreme ability to heal “more than we could hope for or imagine”. (Ephesians 3:21) 

Isaiah 41:13 New Life Version (NLV)

For I am the Lord your God Who holds your right hand, and Who says to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’

Wherever we wander, God’s love and light surrounds us; perhaps we are the ones who erect the boundaries by lowering our expectations of his presence.

***

Here are instructions for using the popular app Insight Timer on your phone to create a saved session with customized features, including background music. Do not try to read this recipe unless you are on the App and looking at the screens. It makes no sense on its own!

Open Insight Timer. If you need it, you can get it free from the App store.

Touch the clock icon for timed sessions.

Scroll down to ambient sounds. Open up its menu of choices. Lately, I have been using Reflections, which has a river bend image. Two other ambient sounds that I enjoy are as follows:

Angel Choir, with the statue of the Madonna image, located directly below Reflections

Moonlight, top row, middle square, with the moon on the water image. Pick what you like and touch the red Save in the upper right hand corner. This takes you back to the Timer page where you can continue selecting various settings.

Using Duration, set the time for your desired amount. You can edit it later and lengthen the time as needed. On the same screen but below that, you may select a label, such as prayer, walking, meditation. At the bottom of this screen, you will see Warm Up. For my sessions, I use five seconds. This is the delay between when you push start and the gong sounds.

I do not have any interval bells, but you may add them from this Timer screen if you like to set up mile markers. In some of my other presets on Insight Timer, I have interval bells every 10 minutes. For example, when I am praying specific requests, I may use the interval bells to alert me that I need to move on to another category of prayers on my list. Such as 10 minutes for various family members; 10 minutes for others who have asked for prayer; 10 minutes of confession and asking for guidance, etc.

But back to this. At the top of the Timer screen, you will see Starting bell with images. You can scroll through and listen to the various sounds and pick the one that suits you best. In recent sessions, I have used Basu. It’s fun to listen to the options. Something will resonate with you.

Finally, save this session in your presets. You do this by tapping the three dots to the right of the Start button. Select the option to save as a preset. Next it will ask you to give it a name. I call mine Healing Prayer.

When you want to find it on another day, open Insight Timer and choose the clock icon. On the next screen, at the top behind the word Timer, select Presets. You should see the name of your saved session. Touch to open it up.