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“That all that confines you would will fall away.

That you will loose yourself into the love of God

With devotion and desire.

That you may know the way that makes for peace

In your soul and in this world.

That you will give your life to its path.”

 

–  Jan L. Richardson In The Sanctuary of Women

 

Today so many in the world will over indulge…and then indulge a bit more, in the name of tradition.  Because, traditionally, tomorrow marks a season of fasting for the Church, and so today indulge, get all of the “sinning” out of our systems so that we might be clothed in piety over the next forty days. 

 

But liturgy has long since fallen off the radar for many.

 

Fasting is a lost art.

 

Our sacrifices are filled with loopholes and exceptions and expectation of blessing in return.  

If we are honest many of us, like infants, think true freedom comes in the ability to fulfill our every whim and desire.

 

What I want. When I want it.  My way or the highway.

 

 

Listen, dear hearts, this is not freedom.

 

Disciplines and sacrifices are not cords which bind us, they are glasses meant to aid our blindness, to help us see life as it truly is.

 

Life unbridled by the concerns, cares and worries of this world.

 

What you eat.

What you drink.

What you wear.

 

Because, Creator knows we need all these things. 

 

We our bound by

the possessions we allow to define us,

the fears we believe will protect us,

the insecurities that hold us back

 

The lie that we are unworthy.

 

Unloved.

 

 

Today, know that your indulgence is not your freedom.

 

Neither are your scruples.

 

Freedom is found when we tap into the grace we’ve been given to see beyond.

 

When we see life as it was meant to be, instead of how it is.

 

When we retreat to Eden only to return to plant seeds of the Garden with every step we take.

 

 

Freedom is to walk hand in hand with the Creator and Restorer and Sustainer of all things. And in walking alongside, to restore the world with our feeble hands as well.

 

Children learning to tend the garden we once destroyed.

 

 

 May you walk hand in hand today,

with seeds of peace in your steps,

with burning desire and undying devotion in your heart.

 

May this desire burn so deeply that you would not be so easily filled with your whims met.

 

May you know the Truth, and in knowing, may you be free.