Practice Release

You may be able to quote Psalms 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Robert Alter offers a wonderful translation of the first two words of this verse.  He offers what is closer to, “Let go, and know that I am God.”[1]  In Alter’s commentary these words, let go, he writes that it “means to relax one’s grip on something.”  Relax one’s grip, and in that relaxing of YOUR grip, one comes back to knowing I AM God.

Might the Holy Spirit be calling you to relax your grip on something?   I invite you to create a fist with both of your hands – tightly squeeze your hands into fists, hold tightly for a few seconds – now slowly and with attention on your hands, open your hands, palms up, fingers relaxing into a flat hand.  What did you notice in your body as you moved from the tight fist to the open hand?  Perhaps do this exercise a couple times until you do notice in sensation what the release feels like to you.  Releasing the hands may have a physical connection to a place of spiritual contraction.  Listen for what or where you may release.  Let go.

Today, as you move through your day, may you notice where your fists are tightly hanging on, and in that moment, I invite you to let go, release, and know the great I AM is with you.

[1] Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms: A translation with commentary, (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc, 2007), 165