Let yourself be

What is it that we want?  What is it that we need?  At some point these two distinctive questions have become synonymous thus skewing our perception and the world around us. Confusion of what we need with what we want keeps us searching for more, longing for extravagance, hoping for riches. All that we truly need can be found within for all we truly need is God; yet each one of us, at some point in our lives, can be found dauntingly running from what we may never know. We have started over hundreds of times, whether it be work, a relationship, a home, we have all attempted to reinvent ourselves in the hopes of becoming something more. What is it we were trying to become?  Bombarded by commercials and now social media, we are made to feel inferior if we do not have a certain product or look a certain way.  One of my very favorite quotes is from Eleanor Roosevelt, I have probably quotes her before; none-the-less, she said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."  So while the ads promote a particular body image, it need not affect our psyche, that is only if we let it.  Our joy comes from within, it comes from the acceptance of God and His offering of love.   Sure our physical bodies need food and shelter but as we see in Matthew, "Look at the birds of the air, they neither real nor sow and yet your Heavenly Father takes care of them. Are you not much more worthy than them?"  God will provide for us, we need to learn to trust, to give all to God that we may walk side by side and not have to run to keep up.  In accepting our faith, accepting our worth we begin to experience a joy only God can give. This joy, at first, is often doubted because it is like nothing this world has to offer; it is genuine elation with no strings attached, shear love wrapped in sincerity of a promise. To experience this joy is to experience God, intimately and personally, where we are and for who we are, not for disguise we have created.  In 1969, Donovan released a song entitled, "Happiness runs in a circular motion".  This is a some which my child and I still sing as a round together.  While I do not like the word happiness for I believe it to rest upon shallow, often tangible actions and wants, I believe joy can easily be substituted without flaw.  "Happiness runs in a circular motion. Thought is Like a tiny boat upon the sea. Everybody is a part of everything anyway. You can have anything if you let yourself be."  Joy in a circular motions, yes, this is the experience, this is the reality when we accept God in our lives, when we accept that the only thing we truly need is God. Funny, though, because the reason doubt of this joy sets in is because it is infinite, no ending yet it began with God.  As humans we can not fathom endless anything, life ends thus all things must end according to human logic. Reason tries to make its way into this joy, attempting to negate its wholistic healing of the soul. When this happens we must remember that we have the power to let this happen or the power to let the joy continue to run in a circular motion, saturating us with all the greatness God has to offer.  The physicality of our humanity denotes a connection to this world, we are as much a part of this world as it is a part of us, this includes fellow human beings. We are connected by a intangible bond for we all, independent of race, nationality, gender, we all come from God.  Created in His image and likeness, we are charged with caring for one another, charged with accepting and fulfilling our responsibilities; our responsibility to love and be love, to care and be cared for, to act with kindness and sincerity, to strengthen our faith by placing complete trust in God that we may come to intimately know His love for us.  "You can have anything if you let yourself be"...there is no stopping the reach of God, the depth to which our relationship grows depends upon us, we need to just let ourselves be. Instead of spending time hiding, attempting to masquerade ourselves, why not spend that time getting to know ourselves, know who we are and grow to love ourselves. If we take even a bit of time to do this we will come to discover a wonder of worth within.  Acceptance of self coupled with acceptance of God's promises creates for aid a world in which we are completely saturated with joy; every direction we turn we find the rays of the sun shining upon us even in inclement weather for these rays are rays of the Son nourishing us with love that life becomes joyful. No longer will we doubt, no longer will we feel the need to justify this feeling of grandeur for our worth no longer challenged by thought; rather it is celebrated in rich beauty, beauty identified as individual beings of love as created in God's image. We have the power to discover our worth, the power to differentiate need over want, these our choice which lead to the discovery of a lifetime, the discovery of God in our midst, the discovery of life enveloped in joy, saturated in love. Joy, it runs in a circular motion with a diameter so large we will never become stuck I what seems like an infinitive loop because each trek different, the scenery changing, the people new but the feeling of overwhelming joy is incessant, creating smile after smile for the heart is warmed with love. Let yourself be, you can have anything if you let yourself be; be you.  Let yourself be you, intimately connect to love, connect to joy, connect with God and become alive. Let yourself be and become super saturated in joy, this is all we need for this is our home, God our provider...let yourself be in His arms.