Your Child of God self

At Kairos we continue to explore ways to make space for God's love in our lives at our gatherings.

This week's practice: Sit quietly, and get in tune with and slow your breath. Take full, deep breaths. As you breathe, remember the promise made to you at your baptism: 

(Your name), Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. 

(If you wish, divide this promise into two parts. On the in-breath: (Your name), Child of God.  On the out-breath, You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.) 

Do this as long as you have time for. If you don't have 10-20 minutes at once, try this for 3-5 minutes several times during your day.

When we gathered Sunday we discussed the various ways we all experience our identity, and noticed how many of up went to what we "do" or other societally assigned roles: mother, middle child, peacemaker, the strong one. Almost all of these "identities" that we discussed refer to what we do externally rather than who we are at the core.

Richard Rohr and others call this the "false self." We quite naturally assume these identities as we grow, learn and figure out our lives. 

It is also a key part of our spiritual path that we eventually begin to search for the elusive and well-buried "true self," or what the Zen masters call "the face you had before you were born." This true self is beautifully named in The Message's rendering of John 1 as our "child of God self".

Whatever identity you take on in life, and however those identities change, remember that God has defined your true identity, the one you had before you were born, as being God's child!

God's peace to you this week.

Bob

John 1:9-12 (The Message)

The Life-Light was the real thing:
    Every person entering Life
    he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
    the world was there through him,
    and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
    but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
    who believed he was who he claimed
    and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
    their child-of-God selves.