Do you ever find yourself living into your life from a place of the “shoulds”, rather than from a place of freedom, of presence to what-is? Where do you notice the shoulds cropping up in your life, in your day? Do you have this constant sense that there is something you *should* be doing or saying, and you just have to figure out exactly what that is? Or maybe you think you know what it is, but are left with guilt in the gap between the “should” and your actual daily life? Or perhaps it is a sense that *God* should be a certain way, and you are left with confusion or anger in the face of the disparity between what-should-be and your experience with God. Maybe there is still something in you that believes you have to do something to earn your place in God’s heart (even if you “know” better), and you always make sure to keep up with those things you believe are necessary in the life of faith. What might it be like to lean in instead to the freedom of what the present holds, rather than what you think it should? As we go through this week, notice the moments in your days that you begin to live from a place of “should”—whether that is in performing duties you feel you must or responding to someone who is acting contrary to your own expectations for how they should be or feeling frustrated with the disparity between what-should-be and what-is—and when you notice them, pause. Open yourself to what the reality of the present moment is, to what it would be to live freely in that space, and to allow others to live freely as well.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2023-03-13 13:49:21 UTC