"Do not be conformed to this world..."
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.
To Western or comfortable people, “surrender”
and “letting go” sound like losing, but they are actually about accessing a
deeper, broader sense of the self, which is already whole, already content,
already filled with abundant life. This is the part of you that has always loved
God and always said “yes” to God. It’s the part of you that is Love, and all you
have to do is let go and fall into it. It’s already there. Once you move
your identity to that level of deep inner contentment and compassion, you
realize that you’re drawing upon a Life that is larger than your own and from a
deeper Abundance. . . .
The spiritual journey is about living more and more in that abundant place where you don’t have to wrap yourself around your hurts, your defeats, your failures. You can get practiced in letting go and saying, “That’s not me. I don't need that. I’ve met a better self, a truer self.”
--Richard Rohr, Art of Letting Go, disc 6 & Falling Upward, xvii.
[This is an adapted format courtesy of Martha Johnston, Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, DC]
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