Let Go: Receive Your Belovedness // New Blog Post from Abby King
Let Go: Receive Your Belovedness
I let go of my agenda for affection and approval by receiving my belovedness.
Welcome, Holy Spirit.
Welcoming Prayer: Thomas Keating
In my yoga class, we are learning to balance. Before we begin, the teacher invites us to place the soles of our bare feet on the floor, ensuring that each part makes contact with the mat. “Firm through your feet,” the teacher says, “feel that position of strength.” We are anchoring our bodies to the earth to provide stability and security before we can balance.
Outside the class, I often try to anchor myself into other people’s opinions. I grasp onto them like the string of a balloon, soaring when I receive affection and approval, bumping quickly back down to earth, bubble burst, when I don’t.
It’s not surprising. We are hard-wired for love and connection. Being affirmed and encouraged brings out the best in each of us.
But, paradoxically, when we pursue our own agenda for acquiring these things, life gets messy. When we must please other people in order to get our own needs met, we quickly lose our sense of self. It’s an unhealthy way to live that leads to blurred boundaries, disappointment, insecurity and burnout.
Part of letting go is to anchor ourselves into our identity as a beloved child of God. The writer to the Ephesians prays that we would be “rooted and grounded in love” and that we would be able to comprehend the vast dimensions of this love (Ephesians 3:17-19). James Smith helps us remember it this way: “I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights.” There is stability and security in firming our hearts down into the acceptance and approval of Jesus.
When I let go of my own agenda for gaining affection and affirmation, I unhook myself from soaring and sinking with other people’s actions and opinions and ground myself in the love of God. Instead of grasping at the balloon string, my hands are open, releasing my expectations of others and receiving the gifts God is choosing for me in this moment.
Back in my yoga class, I imagine myself as a tree, one foot tucked up against my knee, the other planted firmly on the floor as I balance, with my hands held in prayer. I am rooted and grounded in my belovedness. I am held secure in the affection and acceptance of God. And so, my friend, are you.
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