William Sloane Coffin was a prophetic civil rights leader, a co-founder and president of SANE/FREEZE (the largest peace and justice group in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s), and a prolific writer. He wrote in Passion for the Possible, “Redemptive action is born of vision.” He elaborated, “You can’t think straight with a heart full of fear, for fear seeks safety, not truth. . . . A heart full of love, on the other hand, has a limbering effect on the mind” (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, 2).
Lent is about our journey from fear to love. It is about learning how to live and learning how to love, to cite Henri Nouwen’s text, and learning how to think clearly about the issues of our time from a life- affirming, love-enhancing perspective.
Peace, David Hansen