Children, parents and liberation!

My parents have been a very loving presence in my life. However, when I was young - and even now in my middle-age - I have expended a lot of energy separating out from them and 'going my own way' and so becoming my own person with my own identity. Indeed, this process of separation is a very normal and healthy part of growing up as we experience the liberation of becoming an adult and a chooser, and I have, quite rightly, encouraged my own children to do the same.

Nevertheless, what I have also found is that, as a result, deep within me there is a resistance to the promise offered by God that I become his 'adopted son' through Christ. This new and reconciled relationship with God promises me liberation and joy, as the Holy Spirit dwells within me; but I know that there is another suspicious voice also within me that wonders about this new parentage, and is at least a little anxious that far from offering me liberation, it will make me into a bounded and fearful child.

I now pray that I resist this voice - and speak against it - as I more fully accept the truth that Paul states in Romans 8:15: 'For you do not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship, and by Him we cry, 'Abba! Father!' This is one of the many mysterious paradoxes of the Christian faith, that we become children of God and are also free and our own new person in Christ!

Click on book cover image on this blog's home page for information on my book Nine Steps to Well-Being: A Spiritual Guide for Disconnected Christians and Other Questioning Journeyers - first three chapters are FREE!!