You don’t achieve liberation through control; you achieve liberation
through acceptance. (Note: acceptance doesn’t mean approval or “it’s all good”. Acceptance is a recognition of reality, pain,
our limitations and abilities, the ongoing-ness of God) Katherine Morgan Shcafler.
Brian McLaren writes about how life in the Spirit is a process of letting
go, letting be, and letting come.
This is never one and done, but a continual and constant
invitation. This week, I want to
encourage you to engage in a prayer practice that invites the Spirit to
intercede and interrupt our thinking.
After all, it was my thinking that got me here and may not get me there
where God wants me to go. Sometimes I
cannot grow or go because I am carrying too much “stuff” that the Spirit wants
me to set down.
What is a situation, person, pain, problem, ache, hurt, frustration,
anger, fear, or dis-ease that you are carrying around? Picture it ~ this might be easier with a
person than it is with a general malaise that afflicts and affects many
today. Or maybe your fear is like that
monster under your bed of your soul that disappears the moment you flick on the
lights to try to see it. Even when words
are inadequate and insufficient, try anyway.
Or draw what you are carrying.
The truth is, we cling to our brokenness, believing that we can, nay, we must,
solve it. And when we cling, we hold
tightly to a thousand sharp shards of broken glass; we can be cut again and
again.
Imagine holding that thing you just described or drew on the piece of
paper. Make tense, tight fists with both
your hands, squeezing that situation, person, or pain. Maybe squeeze the way that thing is squeezing
you.
Let it go: I want you to open your hands.
Feel the blood release and flow freely back through. Feel the relief of not trying to control and
contain. What would it mean to let go of
that which you are holding? Do you feel
irresponsible? Sometimes I let the
gospel of thinking I must save the world be the voice that controls my
calendar. Or I think I can’t let go of that;
who would I be if I didn’t have that anger or hurt…I might get hurt again. Do you hear honest fear in that
statement? Open your hands, knowing that
if the pain hops away like a cricket you’ve been holding, you can pick up the
pain again if you wish.
Let it be: Hold your hands in the form of a cup, letting that pain be in your
hands. Ponder prayerfully how that ache,
problem, dis-ease has been defining you and draining your energy. Ponder prayerfully and gracefully what you
would say to a friend who would be going through something like this. Would you verbally beat that person up,
telling them they are weak or silly? Probably
not! But my inner critic loves to do
this to me. Hold the heaviness, feel the
weightiness in your hands of what you've been grappling with, how many calories
you’ve been burning because of that. Be
with your ache, curiously listening to it.
Let it come: Is there something else that wants space and place in your hands,
too? Just as there is only so much I can
carry, there is only so much room in my soul.
There is that great ancient wisdom that within our souls there is a wolf
and sheep…and the one that wins is the one you feed. What are you feeding by how you are clinging? We do not have endless energy, so when we
give our breath, life, and attention to that which is draining, what leftovers
do we offer to other parts that are more life-giving? May this prayer practice help you today
notice what you are carrying and that you are being carried by the Creator who
holds you every moment. Amen.
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