4/6/14 Rev. David McArthur
The Heart’s Path to Freedom: 5. Love Soak
We have been getting ready to enter a place with great creative power and energy where Spirit frees. The steps we’ve taken are 1) Embrace the feelings we have. They are the emotional markers which point to where we need to heal. Then connect with our power by 2) Breathing Love. It lifts us to where we see the patterns in our lives that we have been tripping over. This is divine objectivity, or 3) Spiritual Understanding. In step 4) Heart Neutral, we hold our feelings in our hearts in neutral. They’re not good, not bad. It is not the time for us to to do anything with them but step back and let Spirit be active in us.
The real fun is step, 5) Love Soak. Give yourself a hug! It feels good. Let it fill you until there is no pain, until Spirit within calls it into wholeness.
Victoria was a classmate of mine in ministerial school. Upon graduation, the committee that grants ordination told her no, that she was “too childish” to be a minister. Afterward there were tears and blame, but she knew it was due to something inside her, a block that she had pursued for years, that caused her to respond with childishness whenever she felt threatened. So she followed the 5 steps, and let that love in. It lifted her to where she could see the pattern in her life of using her “pretty little girl” whenever she felt fear. She saw the need in her that the “little girl” stood for. She poured her love on it. It didn’t matter what “Little Vickie” had done, what mattered was that Vickie loved her. That which carried the pain began to heal. What came through was the true peace of the being she was. She went back to the committee, and has been a successful minister now for over 30 years.
Thich Nhat Hahn says, “It’s like a mother, when the baby is crying, she picks up the baby and she holds the baby tenderly in her arms. Your pain, your anxiety is your baby.” You must care for it. We have become trapped in emotional constraints that keep us from functioning, that keep us weighed down. Let’s heal that baby till it doesn’t hurt at all. It takes a while to let it soak in, but this is how you heal yourself, how you take the plank out of your own eye. Let that amazing power of spirit heal. We can heal everything. Take just 10 minutes when that certain feeling comes up. Soak it in love.
What we find at the end is that it’s really true—Love is what it’s all about!