Open up to Love - Episode 161

Today’s story is called, “Open up to Love” and it is about letting love in and letting everything that is not love, out.

Sharing Stories

Hi there, I'm Terces, and I want to welcome you to another episode of the Unreasonably Grateful podcast, and first of all, thank you for being here. I'm grateful that you're sharing your journey with me. It's certainly my hope that sharing my story will aid you in your journey.

We learn from one another's stories, so hopefully, my story will help you see something about yourself and open you up to some new possibilities. Give you a little bit more freedom or a little bit more wiggle room.

Whether you're recovering from something that you call addiction, as I am and have been for the past thirty-eight years, or whether it's something else for you. I'm grateful to be on this journey with you.

I do this podcast simply to show up, break my heart open, and let some of that wisdom pour forth. The hope is that you'll glean something, and it'll make a difference for you. It certainly makes a difference for me that you're here. So thank you again.

Unreasonably Grateful

I'm still sharing stories from my book released last year, called Unreasonably Grateful, Living in Grace by Choice. Today the story I want to share with you is called "Open up to Love".

For those of you that are following along with the book, today's story is on page 43, chapter 24. The 1990s is the timeframe that I've attributed to this story. When people ask me when I became a Christian, I say I was always a Christian, I just wasn't a very good one. Today I realize it's a process. Forgiveness goes deeper over time.

It was one thing for me to say that Jesus loves me. It was something else to really let that love in.

Open up to Love

As I was guided through my recovery, the fourth message that I heard was, "Open up to love". It sounds pretty basic, yet for me, it was anything but simple. Over the years, I have learned that when love comes in, everything that isn't love needs to get out. It needs to get out of the way. You can't let the light in without it illuminating the darkness.

I suspect each of us has our own version of darkness, mine was filled with all sorts of lies and deception. The trouble was I hadn't distinguished them as lies yet. My default is to think other people know better than I do. I guess you would call that low self-worth., But it lived for me more like I just couldn't trust myself.

It wasn't that I trusted them either, I just thought they knew more. So the message or the lesson to this is when you say that you're a Christian, you are seeing that you are extravagantly Loved. Let that sink in for you for a moment.

Self-Worth

You know for those of us who have struggled with some kind of addictive behavior or addiction. There certainly usually is some version of lack of worth. Lack of worthiness or something we're hiding from, covering up, running from, or as I would say, it's some truth about ourselves that we don't yet want to be responsible for.

So we've created this alternative path, this obstacle that stops us from taking full responsibility for our gifts or our talents or what we have to offer and what we have to share. How that giftedness or talents can come to the surface or how they can be developed, enriched, and deepened is only in the light. It is only in Love. Love is what heals people.

Letting Love in

Letting love in is like flushing out everything that isn't congruent with or can't be in that light or hold that much light. So when you start to let love in, you also have to be willing to let go of every expression, every thought, every attitude, all the things that we say, that we do, that we think, that is not in alignment with love.

If Love is really going to go deeply into the core of who we are. And ultimately influence and guide and support us in everything that we are, that we say, that we do and that we believe.

This week see if you can consciously let more love in. Whether it's saying kind things to yourself or letting other people affirm or say kind things to you. Whether it's writing down and reading affirmations or speaking to yourself in the mirror, like giving yourself an emotional high-five. Encourage yourself and then notice what distracts you or what gets in the way. What inhibits you from letting that love in, and then of course there's the love of the creator. Love of what I call God. The love, the big love.

The love that is at the core and is the source of all of who you are is always available. Let that in and see if you can breathe more of that in. And exhale any resistance you have to that, okay? Practice that this week and take it on. Let me know how it goes, and I'll see you next week.