Wednesday, April 21, 2021

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Katie Snipes Lancaster

Scripture: Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

Spiritual Practice: Detachment
There is a paradox within faith. Faith is our life long quest for God, and yet faith is a gift from God. There is nothing we can do to “earn” our faith. There is nothing we can do to “achieve” faith. It isn’t like earning a merit badge with your scout troop. It isn’t like graduating with a degree from a university. God is the source of our faith. St. Augustine says that we can only seek God because God has already found us.

The spiritual practice of detachment means letting go. It means letting go of what is getting in the way of our relationship with God. It means letting go of stale habits. It means letting go of the expectations, even, that we place on ourselves (or even the expectations we unwittingly place on God) in our relationship to the divine.

This kind of detachment can make way for new kinds of engagement. It is a lenten kind of practice, a giving up, a loosening of the ties that keep us distracted from the core of our faith. May we detach from all that holds us back.

Daily Prayer
God of this day and the next,
We deeply desire to connect with you.
Sometimes, we spin our wheels, distracted.
Other times, our own “security blankets”
shade us from true connection with you.
Help us to detach from unhealthy patterns.
Let us loosen our grip on our faith life
just enough that we allow you to take the wheel.
Lead us, O God, closer and closer to you.
Amen.