Spirituality is always about releasing. Once we see truly what is keeping us from freedom we should see the need to discard it (John 8:32.) However, in our consumer society we are not trained in that direction.
True liberation is letting go of our false self, our cultural biases, and of our fear of loss and death. Freedom is letting go of wanting more and better things, and it is letting go of our need to control and manipulate. It is even letting go of our need to know and our need to be right—which we only discover with maturity. We become free as we let go of our three primary centers of energy: our need for power and control, our need for safety and security, and our need for affection and esteem.
Following Jesus is “a narrow gate,” as he himself put it (Matthew 7:13-14). However, for some reason, we thought the narrow path had to do with self-restraint, usually physical, instead of simple living, selflessness, and peacemaking. Virtues that should have created a very different society and civilization, but to this day Christians feel much more guilt and shame about our private sexual body than about our social body.
Matthew 7:13-14 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
