She’s one of the most admired charity leaders in Tennessee and I’ve referred to her often – partly because she has a way of speaking in quotable phrases. So I listened carefully after I asked Rev. Becca Stevens (left) founder of Magdalene in Nashville, How do you drive away fear?
"I don’t try to drive away fear," she said. "Instead, I just tell myself, trust Love. When I do that, there’s no room for fear in my heart."
Because of her work out on the streets offering sanctuary to prostitutes and drug addicts, Rev. Stevens often finds herself walking through dangerous territory. "Trust Love, I tell myself, and it always seems to work."…
It’s a powerful idea and one which has empowered countless people over the centuries, both the well known and the anonymous. Does Love protect us from injury? Of course not. What Love protects us from is 
fear. For, as Rev. Stevens says, there is no room for fear when we are filled with Love.
This is clearly what the Apostle Paul meant when he exhorted his followers in his letter to the Ephesians ( 6:11) to "…put on the full armor of God (Love)…" Elsewhere, in his letter to the Romans (13: 11-14) he exhorts them to "put on the armor of light." Armor is an image of war. But Paul’s meaning could not have been less warlike.
Saint Paul knew that all of us seek both strength and protection of one kind or another. He offered all of us, and caregivers in particular, a paradoxical bit of advice: Don’t think so much about armor on the outside of your body. Instead, Live Love – from the inside out.
As we travel our own pathways, encountering occasional angels and dragons along the way, perhaps the wisest thing we may begin to do is to trust Love. This not only drives away fear, but allows us to embrace the angels of joy.
-Erie Chapman
Journal of Sacred Work 
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