On Sunday, I preached about the internal messages we tell ourselves and the inadvertent impact they have within us. We say things to ourselves that we would never say to anyone else! At least, I know that has been the case for me in my recent journey toward recovery. As I looked around the sanctuary on Sunday, I saw quite a few nods and tears wiped away from your eyes, which tells me that I’m not alone in this struggle.
The reality is that filtering out all the other noises in order to listen with every fiber of our beings to that still, small voice – that voice that calls us “Beloved” - is some of the hardest and yet most important spiritual work you and I can or will ever do. And it takes a lifetime! There’s no easy way out, no way to skip or to find shortcuts around it, and no one else can do it for us.
But I believe it’s worth it. Because I believe we are worth it. All of God’s children are worth it. As Debbie Hoover so beautifully summarized the sermon on Sunday, let’s start telling ourselves, “Beloved, you’re worth it.” And actually believe it.
If you’d like to continue learning and growing to love yourself as God created you to be, I’d like to invite you to join me for our upcoming Wednesday night class on the book Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole.
I deeply appreciated reading this book throughout my own recovery over the past several months and think that the author, Julia Watts Belser, a rabbi, Hebrew scholar, and wheelchair user, has such rich wisdom to share with us. Her writing challenges not only ableism but racism, sexism, and all the other prejudices that are so deeply rooted within us. She writes:
“In this book, I bring disability wisdom into conversation with my own religious tradition, with spiritual practice, with questions of the heart. Diving deep into my own disability experience has led me to unexpected insights as a teacher of Jewish text and tradition. Everything I know about God comes through these disabled bones.”
You are welcome to read the book along with us, but it is not required, the conversation around our tables will be richer because of everyone who participates. To read an excerpt from the book, visit here.
~ Mary Alice Birdwhistell