THE FREEDOM TO SING, DANCE, PRAISE AND LOVE

Concluding my reflection on this prayer of Saint Therese of Liseaux: "Today may there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content and give thanks in all situations. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us."

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could always feel free to sing at the top of our lungs even if we couldn’t sing our way out of a paper bag, to dance up a storm even if we have two left feet, to praise God even if words fail and to love everyone even our worst enemy? Of course it would and of course we can even as we set so many obstacles in our way that we often believe we cannot.

Those obstacles that stand in our way are the mental roadblocks that we set up for ourselves against ourselves that prevent us from being free to sing and dance and praise and love. What are those obstacles, those self-made and self-imposed roadblocks? They are many and they are what St. Therese knows we need to tear down in order to be free to be who we are, who God created us to be. This is the list:

1)      Worries over that which is out of our control that prevent us from being a peace with ourselves.

2)      Failing to have faith in God that God will give us whatever we need to deal with whatever situation in which we find ourselves at the moment, especially those times when we would rather be anywhere than where we are at the moment.

3)      Failing to have faith in ourselves that we can do what needs to be done; and if we cannot do it alone, knowing there will be others to help us.

4)      Excusing ourselves from doing what we are called to do on the pretext that others are more gifted and better able to do what needs to be done.

5)      Believing that we are being punished and, thus, unloved when bad things happen to us, forgetting both that God love us unconditionally and that when bad things happen, there is always resurrection to be found.

6)      Allowing all of this to live in discontent and, thus, unable to be thankful for all that we have and all that we are.

If we could we remove all those obstacles, all those roadblocks, all those false assumptions and allow the truth of just how blessed we truly are to settle into our bones, then those very bones would jar us out of our doldrums, get us up in our feet and make us sing and dance and praise and love no matter how foolish we may think we look or feel. That freedom is there for the taking. So what are we waiting for? That, I suspect, is the real question.