Episode 341 - Exploring Lent: Spiritual Growth through Detachment and Engagement

In this episode of "Restoring the Soul with Michael John Cusick," we'll journey through a candid and enlightening conversation between Michael and AJ Denson. Together, they embark on a thought-provoking exploration of the season of Lent. Michael shares personal reflections on the significance of 40 days of renewal leading up to Easter, highlighting the duality of detachment and engagement that comes with spiritual practices. 

With vulnerability and insight, Michael opens up about the profound impact of relinquishing news apps and striving to be a "better Christian" during Lent. AJ joins in with fresh perspectives, inviting listeners to reflect on their practices and consider how detaching from certain rhythms might create space for a deeper connection with God. Join us as we delve into the essence of Lent and explore how we can live with intentionality, grace, and openness to the divine. 

Transcript

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Hi, everybody, it's Michael. Welcome to another episode of Restoring the Soul. I am here with my brother and friend AJ Denson in Texas. Aj, welcome again. Michael. Good to be here. Thank you for having me. It's really been fun to have these conversations and to kind of get to know how we both banter back and forth and really enjoyed our conversations over the first two chapters of Sacred Attachment. But today, what's new with you on man? Just excited to be here. This is. I've always loved hopping on the podcast and talking with you. I know we kind of talked before and you were wanting to dive into Lent, so I'm just gonna toss it on over to you and we'll go on into it. Yeah, let's talk about Lent first of all, you know, because we don't know who's listening. There may be people who go, oh, I'm, I'm, you know, living in Lent right now. And I gave up such and such, which is oftentimes common for people that have Lent as part of their practice. And then there's other people. And I remember talking with you once saying that you did not grow up in a liturgical church. You guys didn't practice Lent. And it was actually at a Restoring the Soul men's event that you first heard about it. That's true. Yeah. I had no idea. So I want to talk to people across the board, but lent is a 40 day period leading up to Easter, and it begins on Ash Wednesday, which is Wednesday 40 days out from Easter. And so it's on a different day every year. And then it ends on Holy Saturday, which is the day after Good Friday. And it's a time of renewal and reflection that traditionally Christians will have focal times of prayer. And in liturgical churches like Catholic, Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran, even sometimes Methodist, there's different prayer meetings and rhythms that happen during this time. But then also traditionally, people will fast during Lent. And growing up as a Catholic, as a little boy, we could not during Lent, we couldn't eat fish on Fridays or we couldn't eat meat on Fridays. And some people might go, oh, that's so legalistic. And we sure didn't like it as kids. That's why, depending on what part of the country you're in to this day, on Fridays, McDonald's, for example, back on the east coast, where I think there's a greater concentration of what were once Catholics or people that have that as part of their background, McDonald's has all these filet o fish specials. So you can get a filet o fish value Meal. So literally on Ash Wednesday, like they would have two filet o fish for 99 cents. And at the Catholic church, there's a men's fraternal order that's a Christian service organization called the Knights of Columbus. And the Knights of Columbus would always sponsor every Friday a church fish fry. No way. You know, interestingly so they would, like in Cleveland, where Lake Erie was, they would cook up perch and walleye and they would fry fish and then they would have, you know, like fish and chips or they would have side dishes, lots of tartar sauce. And of course, Catholics, they had beer and they had wine, right? So Southern Baptists might be going, what? So the word lent, l e n t comes from Old English. And my understanding is that it's from the word lencten l e n c t e n and it literally means to lengthen. And so this time of preparation for Easter, where it goes from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, it happens during springtime when the days start to lengthen and where only, you know, in America do we change the time and the clocks, where it becomes really sudden that the days are long, this lengthening process. And I like to think of that as that. There's a part of that word lengthening or from Lent that relates to this overall idea of this period of prayer. And fasting is a time of being stretched, but I get to participate. It's not where I'm being stretched and I'm helpless and I'm powerless, but I get to actually say I'm going to participate and say yes to this being stretched. And so again, as a little boy in Catholic grade school, and I only did first grade in Catholic grade school, but my siblings went all the way through, there would be this question, you know, right before Ash Wednesday or at the church on that weekend and in the Sunday school classes or because after I was in Catholic school, I went to ccd, which were catechism classes. And on Tuesday afternoon we'd have these classes at the Catholic school. And the teachers would always say, okay, everybody has to decide what you're giving up for Lent. And the idea as a kid, I always thought that, you know, God wants me to deny myself. God wants me to take my desires and to push them down. And I have to therefore give up something that I love. And that wasn't exactly it. So when you hear the idea, I just want to throw it back to you. And you hear about this idea that you didn't grow up with this time of a 40 day period of preparation marked by prayer and fasting. When you hear about little kids saying, or even adults saying, yeah, I'm going to give up blank. Like, how does that strike you? And what have you done with this concept since it's new to you? Yeah. I mean, off the bat, I am reminded of people who kind of treat it as a diet. You know, those. January, beginning of the year, 30 day, oh, I'm going to just stop doing something for a little bit. And the idea, the more I explore Lent is an opportunity to take away, not necessarily take away something, but to do something. If I'm guessing, just growing closer to God and preparing obviously for Easter and all the different things. So I don't know. I mean, you're catching me processing it in live event. But yeah, and that's okay. And that's why I love the fact that this is a conversation. I mean, I don't. I don't know enough about this from a historical, theological perspective. I don't know that it's very interesting to dig super, super deep into that. But I want to have a conversation because ultimately I'd like the listeners to have a conversation about this. So, you know, it's interesting. You talked about doing something instead of giving something up. And historically, as we think about the spiritual disciplines, or as I like to call them, spiritual practices, there's two kinds on a continuum. There are spiritual disciplines and practices of detachment. And that is typically where I'm letting go of something, I'm giving something up. And then there's spiritual practices of engagement. And that is that I am going to. Every time I come to a stop sign or a stoplight, I'm going to say the Our Father, Our Father who art in heaven, you know, the Lord's Prayer. Or every time that I see a homeless person, I'm going to pray for them. Or every time I wake up in the morning, the first thing that I'm going to do is say Psalm 23. And it's somewhat arbitrary as our own hearts are desiring to do that. I don't think that there's anything that God says, you must do this. But detachment and engagement are also actually the two sides of our growth. You know, there's always things that we need to pick up and there's things that we need to let go of. And those are really the two. The two sides of, of our spiritual growth. You know, thus my tattoos that you've seen before and that I write about in the chapter in Sacred Attachment about practices where the only tattoos I have on my body, on my right arm, And I happen to be right handed. So my right arm represents my strength. And it says, be still something where I need to exhale, where I need to release, where I need to let go, not let my hands, you know, be active, trying to grasp like Adam and Eve grasped the fruit. And then on my left arm, right on my forearm above where my wrist is, it says, be loved. So be still in my strengths and striving. Be loved in my weakness and my vulnerability. And I think that represents the letting go and the picking up, because the Beloved is Michael. Take something in, receive, pick up, receive the embrace that's there. But back to your point about the idea of giving something up and letting go. The idea of fasting as it relates to Lent, it really represents the 40 days of Jesus spent in the wilderness where he was fasting before he began his ministry. Okay, so that period of fasting obviously was at the beginning of his three year ministry and it wasn't at the end when Easter happened. But the beautiful thing about celebrations and seasons and in the church calendar and in church history, Lent is called a season, a season of the church. And in the Catholic and Episcopal Anglican Church, they speak about ordinary time and then non ordinary time. And the non ordinary time revolves around the events of the birth of Christ at Christmas all the way through Easter. And then there's ordinary time is actually outside of that. Now, is that true chronologically in terms of the spinning of the planets and how gravity lines up? No, but it's on the church calendar because there's always been, since the earliest centuries after Jesus died, there's always been a rhythm and a calendar to mark the events of the life of Christ and the life of the saints who came after Jesus and of the church. And so coming back to this idea, one of the things I wanted to talk about is the two things that I'm giving up and the two things that I did decide to do and I didn't have to give this a lot of thought like when I was a young kid in Catholic school, but the first thing that I gave up and AJ you know that for six weeks I've had a respiratory virus. Actually two different ones. Craziness for about two and a half weeks of that, I was down in bed where I had a fever and I was coughing and I wasn't sleeping at night. And you know, this is not a woe is me, but I really, really, really was sick and just could not bounce back. Oh yeah, we were praying for you. Thank you. Thank you. During this time, I pretty much Overdosed, I mean, like overdosed on social media news. And so what I decided to do when Lent started was to give up and delete all of my apps. And I won't go into the details about or all my news apps in particular, I won't go into the details of which apps I have and how many I had, but there were, oh, on one hand, with all five fingers, on one hand, I had that many different news apps. Newspapers, magazines, blog sites that give news. And then I have a couple of magazines that I regularly subscribe to, including long, long, long term subscription to the New Yorker, which has great literary articles and cultural essays. And I found myself even there looking for political news and what's happening in the world. And this corresponded with a friend of the ministry and my friend John Eldredge, who has recently had the release of his book Experiencing Jesus for Real. And he's been talking on some podcasts and social media. And his book definitely conveys this about how we can really experience Jesus. And I heard him on a social media post before I gave up all the news apps, talking about the impact of the news on the soul. And I've always been a news junkie. But the state that, like, you know, as you're swiping through, you see people and I like, stopped on this. And the voice, the line that I heard was, we were never meant to know about the specific details of everything happening everywhere in the world. And he started with Ukraine and he said, we were never meant to know about how many people are suffering in Ukraine and how many people are suffering in Russia and how many people are suffering. And then you went down the list of a couple of the major world events. And my initial reaction was, that's not right, because I'm supposed to pray for the people in Ukraine. And then something in me was like, but wouldn't it be a relief to not constantly be checking in, to not constantly be hitting that app and scrolling for the latest piece of news? Which does one of two things. My brain is telling me that if I find a piece of news that's somehow good, or if the person that I want to be in office or don't want to be in office, if my guy has a good day or a good week, then I'm going to be okay inside. But if that's not the case, then I'm going to feel anxious. And where I usually go with that is indignation. And so what I've come to see is that through these news apps, and I am not anti news and I am not anti technology. I am not a Luddite or an Amish person. So if you have news apps and this is not your story right now, more power to you. But I felt instant relief with the idea of not having to carry the weight of what's happening all around the world. The only person that's meant to carry that is Jesus. Now I pray every morning. I have a prayer that I pray for the world and it begins with asking God to enter into every moment of darkness, deception, evil, brokenness and unmaking all throughout the world and to bring his light and love. And I pray through different categories. I pray for the poor and those living in war and terror and without life's basic necessities. But that is something that I'm called to do and I don't need to actually have a constant update about what's happening in these places because it's a weight that we were never meant to carry. I think that it gives us a false sense of security when we're constantly checking in with the latest news. Or it gives us, as I said, a sense of indignation which can make us feel very powerful in the midst of really being quite powerless and out of control. You know, one of the things I struggle with on a daily basis is God. I feel so helpless and so powerless about what's happening in the world today, in our country, in our political system, in all of the division, what's happening in other countries, the suffering that's there. And there's seemingly nothing I can do about it. And prayer sometimes doesn't seem to make a difference. But if I click and if I read and if I file one article to the next, and if I give this my attention, then there's the sense of, well, maybe I'm not so powerless. So I gave that up for Lent. And here's the effect. First of all, I'll let you comment. Thoughts. Yeah, tell me I'm crazy. No, I think going back to what you said earlier, you got detachment and engagement. That's a huge way to detach. Part of my question was going to be what you're going to engage with. Like, there's that duality in that. But I think you'll get to that. But I'm with you, man. I have. I read. I'm 25 and I read the newspaper. So call me old, I don't care. But I definitely relate to picking up the news and you're just reading and reading and you like to think it brings you any form of worth and idea of what's going on and that you can do anything about it. So this is eye opening for me and because I can leave listening to the news and have a heavy burden. So I appreciate you sharing. Absolutely. I wanted to take a moment. Sorry, go ahead. No, I just say you had mentioned two things, so I was going to hear about that. But what do you want to take a moment? Well, I want to actually go ahead. And I want to pray this prayer just to give people an example. When you said that there's detachment and engagement, first of all, I may miscommunicate it because we don't need to be doing. It's not like if we detach, then we have to engage. So detachment might mean that I'm going to give up dessert, not so that 40 days from now I can have three donuts instead of zero to make up for it. But I'm going to give up dessert, which was often something that we would do as kids because as an adult now, in the absence of having dessert, like all fasting, there's something in me that's being unmet, that I get to surrender to say in this place where I'm not indulging, where I'm not taking in, where I'm not having this moment of joy, I'm somehow going to be able to be more open, aware of the longing in my heart for God. If there's an emptiness or a craving in me for not having dessert, that that emptiness and that craving might actually lead me to a longing for God. You know, it was Thomas Merton who said that what we do with the restlessness inside of us becomes our Christian spirituality. And so if I don't have dessert, I might feel a lot more restless inside because that dessert will make me feel better. It might make me. The sugar might make me feel more comforted, it might just make me feel less empty. So in that detachment, it's an opportunity to be able to reflect and to be present to God as a preparation for observing this holy week of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and then the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday. So this season and this 40 day pattern just becomes a structure that we can kind of hang our hats on. And it's as simple as you said, detachment and engagement. But I want to read this prayer. And I know I'm jumping around a little bit because I suspect that some people may have heard me when I quoted John Eldridge say, you know, that's just so wrong that we're not to be concerned about the world. Well, number one, I didn't say that, he said, nor am I saying that we shouldn't be concerned about the world. What I'm saying is that we don't need 24, seven updates and we were never created to have that. So back in 1960, people were not seeing on their news, the evening news, all of the killing and the bombing going on in Vietnam. That didn't happen until mid to late 60s. And that happened and it began to turn the tide of a group of young people, we called them the hippies, the peaceniks, or people that were just against the war, that they began to stand up and resist because they actually had the knowledge and they were seeing it happen every night. And that began to change things politically. And so some people might be saying, we'll see. This knowledge of what's happening in the world allows us to fight for justice. And I would say that's a good thing. But what is the price upon your soul? When Jesus said in Mark, chapter seven, I believe, and it's also in Luke, and he said, what will it profit a person if they gain the whole world and lose their own soul? John Ortberg said once that that passage is not talking about the destination of our soul, like heaven or hell. Jesus wasn't saying, if you, you know, gain the whole world, you're going to go to hell. What he was saying is that what Jesus was talking about, the condition of our soul, the well being of our soul, the wholeness of our heart, the lightness of our spirit, are we living on the easy yoke where Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, come to me. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Well, the only reason why I'm talking about giving up the news is because it's a heavy yoke for me. It's burdening me, it's weighing down my soul. And so there's something in me that's actually been light. There's something in me that has actually felt more joy. There's something in me that I have not felt as powerless and helpless overall in my life. The way that I feel when I and constantly reading the news and especially doing deep, deep dives into the news. Fascinating. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I'm just sitting here processing that. So not necessarily when Jesus is talking about this light yoke, is it bad things that I've always viewed it as yoke getting off these bad things, but it can be good things that just aren't good for your soul necessarily. Well, this leads to the second thing that I gave Up. So great segue, you know, when Jesus is talking about that easy yoke in the message paraphrase many people that are listeners to this program will be familiar with. We're talking about Matthew 11, 28, 30, and the king James English says, all you who are, who are weary and heavy laden, come to me and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. And in the message paraphrase Eugene Peters says. Eugene Peterson paraphrases it as are you weary? Are you tired? Come to me and I will give you rest. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Come to me, watch with me, work with me, watch how I do it. And then here's this beautiful line which is really what the yoke is about. He says, I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Come to me and learn to live freely and lightly. That's the easy yoke. So we often lay heavy things on us. We lay heavy things on ourself with the belief that God wants us to do that because it's hard or because it's heavy or because that seems really spiritual. And Jesus invites us to die right in Luke 9 and in two other Gospels. His invitation is, if you are going to follow me, you're going to have to lose your life so you can. And for the early disciples, that meant literally losing their life. And for us that means the surrender of the things that are life defining, that make our life work, that allow us to manage and to control our lives. So there's a difference between the fact that Jesus invites us to actually die, to find life, to die, to resurrect, to experience something new. And this contrast with if it's from Jesus, it's got to be heavy and hard and, you know, it's got to be this big mountain that I'm going to climb, because I'll say it again, he says, learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. So as a little kid, you know, I would give up chocolate milk on my lunch hour and I would just drink regular milk and the chocolate milk had a lot of sugar in it. And there was this sense where even as a little kid I was like, well, God must be really impressed with the fact that I'm not drinking chocolate milk. And I think God probably smiled in terms of, well, isn't that delightful that a little boy is doing that? And I don't know that any first grader really understands the depths of that. But it was what I could do for God. But to me, it was like, here's this heavy thing. There's something that I love that I've got to give up. And in reality, this is the segue. The other thing that I gave up, and I'm being deadly serious about this, is I gave up trying to be a good Christian. You're nodding your head. Yeah, I. I'd love to hear you elaborate on that. So I'm 60 years old. You know, I've been a follower of Jesus in an active way since I was 16. And there's still something inside of me that says I need to do X, Y, or Z to be a better Christian. And even though I write books now about how much God loves us and embraces us and doesn't see us for who we should be, but he embraces us for who we actually are. And I know this all in my head. There's parts of me, younger parts, internal parts, parts that, using ifs language, manage pain, try to prevent pain from happening. And then there's firefighters, parts of me that are responding to the pain and, you know, something's on fire and it's going to put it out. Parts of me that are still very compulsive. So there's this part of me that after I decided to give up the news, and it has been really significant, as I've been talking about here, another part of me said, that's really not significant enough. You know, if you were to do something more like, okay, give up the news, but, you know, don't eat for 24 hours one day a week. Because I have a friend, another part of the country, who he has, like, this spiritual gift that's a really cool thing where he fasts and he'll call me up and he'll go, you know, I'm fasting during such and such times or anything, I can pray for you. And I've really come to trust that he's not doing this to impress God or to impress me. Like, this is something he feels called to do because in that fasting, it opens up space, and the physical hunger that comes allows him to sublimate that. That hunger toward God. So there's a part of me that's like, if I was really spiritual and if I was really a good Christian, and here's the phrase, if I was really committed, then, you know, I would fast, like so and so, or I would pray longer every morning. Now, here's the. Here's the very delicate line that we're going to walk. Okay. Alrighty. It's a good thing to pray and it's probably a good thing to pray more if you are inclined to do that and if Jesus is leading you to do that and if it's not a heavy yoke, if it is heavy or ill fitting, and if you're doing it, and I'm not talking about normal resistance like, oh, I need a second cup of coffee here at six in the morning because this is hard to stay awake while I'm praying. I'm not talking about that kind of normal stuff because for centuries, monks and nuns and other people that get up and pray the hours through the day, 24 hours in the middle of the night, they pray and they love God and they're tired and they have to battle falling asleep. I'm talking about the part of me that goes, I don't want to be doing this, or I'm only doing this because you know, God will be more impressed with it. So there's this subtle line between things that are hard and things that we go, yeah, I feel led to do that and it'll be hard. And the other side of that subtle line in me that goes, I'm not doing enough. And if I prayed more or fasted or maybe I should every Friday schedule out and go down to the Sacred Heart Retreat center and spend six hours there in silence, that would be really great preparation. Yeah, that becomes burdensome. That becomes the heavy yoke that Jesus says, I don't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. So here's the statement. If it feels heavy and if it feels ill fitting, it's not from Jesus. And in my tendency to be a little bit perfectionistic and to be self critical and a lot of that comes out of shame, the second thing I'm giving up, as I said, was I'm giving up this lifelong struggle of I've got to be better, I've got to do more. And what I hear the Lord saying to me is, michael, this thing you're doing with the news, that is so good for your soul. And I'm excited for what's happening in you. Even as, for example, I wake up in the morning and one of the things I try to do is to pray the third step prayer from the 12 steps. And it says, God, I offer myself to you to build with me and do with me as you will. Relieve me from the bondage of self that I may better do your will take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those that I would help of your power, your love, and your way of life. May I do thy will always. So several months ago, I just started trying to. First thing when I wake up and I become conscious, I say that prayer. It's just a beautiful way to surrender into the day. And I find that when I'm not deep diving and I'll literally say, binging on news, that I'm much more likely to pray and to come to the prayers that are written prayers or psalms or different Bible verses that I will pray. Those are much more likely to come because it feels like my heart is unburdened and that there's not something heavy on my heart. And then in that space of connecting with God and bringing my heart to him, it's almost as if there's something in me subconsciously. And I think this is the spirit of God that's saying, oh. Rather than click on the article in the New York Times, which will give me either a shot of dopamine because my people are winning, or because, you know, this is happening in the world and now I'm okay, or which will give me a shot of cortisol, which will make me feel indignant and angry, I get to actually come to God and go, here's my heart. Relieve me, Lord, from the bondage of self. And I offer myself to you to build with me and do with me as you will. And I'm sure that I'm eventually going to return to the news apps, but I think if I do it, I might have one, and it might be an app where there's maybe a couple of headlines and I can't do a very deep dive. And my hope is that after this 40 days where I'm fasting from the news, that God speaks to me and my own heart says, well, here's how I want to live. I think that's the other thing about Lent in the season of preparation is it allows us, during this time of reflection, to actually think about how we want to live. Because it feels like, whatever, 365 days minus 40. Can you do that math? 325, yeah. Oh, I'm impressed with myself. Yeah. Way to go, man. Nailed that. The other 325 days of the year, I often just. I live reflexively, like, I'm not living intentionally. And so this 40 days becomes a time of going, oh, this is how I want to live. And how I want to live is a heart that's able to be more spontaneous and free to reach out to, to speak to, to be in Union with God rather than to be in union with and to practice the presence of the New York Times or whatever, you know, digital apps are there. Yeah. Now, we've not even yet spoken about the addictive algorithms and things like that that are built and baked into the news as well. Right. So there's this, there's this machine behind the scenes that they're not just presenting content and news, they're actually, they're they're administering the drug of the content of the news in a way that is literally causing dopamine hits in my brain. So that I go from this article to this article to this link with these images in between, and I don't want to live that non reflectively and unintentionally. Yeah. Wow. Well, let me just first by say starting off and say thank you for your vulnerability. That was. And welcoming us into that. I mean, that is just huge. Second. Yeah, that totally. I'm sensing a lot of. Instead of doing, being. And that seems like a light yoke to go with our conversation. And yeah, those algorithms are aggressive. I always say if it's free, you're the product and they want you looking and engaged in that. And not that there's anything inherently wrong with it, but it can be a soul sucking thing. So, yeah, I'm encouraged by that. Thank you. Yeah. So, you know, in terms of your lack of exposure and experience to Lent, just think in terms of during this season between now and Easter, not even making a lent thing. Is there something for you and for our listeners that God is saying, hey, here's an invitation, or here's a tap on the shoulder or a whisper of. Have you thought about detaching from blank? Yeah, absolutely. The thing that I'm hanging on to the most is going back to what we were talking about is what that heavy yoke is. It doesn't have to necessarily be a bad thing, but just a thing that is bad for you. And I'm not as hooked on the news, but I know for me, I watch a lot of YouTube and those algorithms for social media can be very draining. And again, not inherently bad, but too much of anything can be poor. So I know from my own reflection that would be a huge thing to do before Easter. And honestly, yeah, I'm just really hanging on to what other rhythms in my life that I'm just like, oh, that exists that I don't think twice about, but could open up a door to be with God and to dwell with him. So, yeah, so we'll finish with this, AJ this idea of me giving up the need to be a good Christian or a better Christian, I'll just say this, and then people can be offended or disagree with it, and that's fine. But I think that this idea that I, we need to be better Christians, that that's a demonic idea, because that's gonna lead to striving. And any aspect of actually growing, releasing, relinquishing, or becoming something more than who I am in this moment, it's all actually an act of surrender. Surrendering to love in particular, as opposed to doing more. And even if it's, you know, I do eat too much, and I'm doing a Lenten act of praying the Lord's Prayer, you know, three times a day. And I'm doing that as this discipline. And I'm fasting from constantly texting all kinds of people. There's that sense of. That's the I need to do more. And some of us think we need to stop doing certain things in order to be acceptable. But both of those point to the same idea that if I was different than. If I. If I was different than I actually am right now, then God would love me more, God would bless me more, God would like me more. God wouldn't be disappointed or disgusted or frustrated with me. And that's the lie that's demonic. Because all Christian growth starts with the eternal truth that we are loved and be loved for who we are at this given moment, not for who we should be, not for who we would be, not for who we will be. That we are loved just as we are. And that truth will never, in the deepest part of our heart, release us or allow us to justify living however we want to live. It will actually draw us into a place of greater trust and greater sense of being seen, a greater sense of being soothed, safe, and ultimately secure. It's going to lead to attachment performance. Whether it's I need to do more or I need to do less will lead to anxiety and shame. That's the only way that that can go. So trusting that the me that exists in this moment is deeply beloved and dear listener over this Restoring the Soul podcast. The you that exists in this moment, at this particular time, that's the you that is deeply loved. Not the you that will be in 10 years or in 10 days or on your best day, but today. And that is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. So let's end with this. And this is the actual ending. I mentioned this before, and this may feel like this is out of place, but this Whole thing about not ever being created to know about everything happening in the world for people that are struggling with that. Let me tell you what I do. I pray every morning, a liturgy. And this liturgy is basically two pages long on 8 and a half by 11 paper, and it's typed out, and it's basically a series of psalms and prayers. Some are prayers from the church, like the prayer of St. Francis about make me an instrument. But I have written a section about praying for the world, and we do this in my church every week. And so I've taken a number of those colecs, C O L L E C T S, which is a. A liturgical word for a written prayer for a specific occasion. And I've taken them and kind of pieced them together. But let this be our prayer as we fade out on the podcast today, saying that we do pray for the world. And when we even pray the Lord's Prayer, that we're praying for the world. We're praying that evil will not be victorious. We're praying that temptation will not be the thing that guides us. We're praying that in a world that seems to be that of scarcity, that in God's economy and kingdom of abundance, give us our daily bread. We're saying, in this world today, thy will be done Where? On earth as it is in heaven. So that prayer from Jesus is what allows us to engage with concern and compassion and love for the world. Okay, so let's read this, and then you and I will talk again soon on another episode. Okay, sounds good. Prayer for the world. Merciful Father, in every place of pain, suffering and desperation, may your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, in every pocket of darkness, deception, death, evil and unmaking. Send forth your light and your love and make all things new. Lord, grant your healing power, your grace and mercy to all who are sick, injured, neglected or disabled that they may be made whole in body and spirit. Lord, pour out your mercy to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the addicted, the oppressed, the unemployed, and those who live without life's basic necessities. For those living in terror and fear, for those suffering the ravages of war and violence and persecution, especially the persecuted. Church, our brothers and sisters around the world. We pray for them. We pray for orphans and widows. So, Prince of Peace, be near to them and bring hope, help and mercy. Let them know that you see them and that you are with them. Let them know that you have come for them and bring forth protection, provision and healing in their hearts, minds, and lives and justice and mercy throughout the whole world. Amen. Amen. Michael. Thank you, A.J. thank you. Back on another episode soon. Thanks for being here today.