It is really okay for us to be ourselves.
We are loved and safe, just as we are.
Nothing separates us from Love.
If life, death, angels, and demons can't separate us from Love (Romans 8), then our honest attempts to live into the truth of who we really are won't separate us, either.
In fact, remember that definition of "sin?" "Missing the mark," that's what they always said. "Sin is missing the mark."
What if the sin is missing the mark of who we really are?
What if the mark is the Imago Dei that every human possesses?
And what if each of us bears out some precious part of the divine image, unique completely to ourselves?
And what if, in trying to hit targets outside of ourselves, set up by culture, religion, family expectations, what if THAT is the real sin?
What if we're just really supposed to be who we are?
What if?
The thing is, though, that
being our own true selves
feeling our own true feelings
asking our own true questions
finding our own true answers
all these things require being a separate self.
We are, at once, a necessary and unique part of a whole, and also a necessary and unique separate self.
A great mosaic, perhaps.
Alphonse Mucha window, St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague, photo: me and my cell phone
We are not separate from Love when we are a separate self.
We can never be separated from the great life-blood of the Vine, remember that.
But we are separate in the sense of being fully free,
not under the control, domination or oppression of others.
Love will never control, dominate, shame, bully, or oppress.
Only Love is our life-line, not others, no matter how religious, how expert, how powerful those others are.
We do not allow others to put themselves in Love's place as our source and supply.
In that sense, we are separate.
We come to Love,
we let it flow through us,
and we Become.
We become the selves we were meant to be, our
whole,
healthy,
risk-taking,
rest-taking,
life-giving,
Love-receiving
selves.
Fully connected to Love.
Wholly free.
Free indeed.