Resistance was winning, until.....
I have been in the deep grips of resistance for a while now. After my trip to Costa Rica was cancelled this past weekend, and with a foot of snow in the forecast, it felt like the perfect storm to give me two uninterrupted days to face resistance head-on.
This morning, I sat and asked Love what it wanted me to know or write about today. Without pause, and like a symphony being played through me, my fingers typed: “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses.” So…I followed, and here’s what came out:
Give us this day our daily bread.
There is a power greater than us that works with and through us every day. I call this power God—or Love. This Radical Love is standing right here, offering us our daily bread, but it’s up to us to receive it.
What does receiving it look like?
That’s where I can get tripped up. Sometimes, it doesn’t look like anything—or at least not at first.
In the Lord’s Prayer, the line before “give us this day our daily bread” is “on earth as it is in heaven.” The Lord’s Prayer invites us into a reality where we get to experience heaven on earth.
How do we experience this reality of heaven on earth?
For me, it’s when my spiritual being drives the human container my soul has been placed in. When my spirit leads, I think, speak, and act in ways that are effortlessly—and often unknowingly—life-giving to the world around me and to the world within me. It’s an undeniable feeling.
When our spirit leads—when Love leads—we become givers of daily bread, of nourishment. At the same time, we also get to receive it.
Notice the verse says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It includes the other. It includes all. You, me, and the sample lady at Costco.
When my son was 8 years old (he’s now 14), he walked me into an unforgettable moment at Costco between him and the sample lady giving out bread. Oh, did this moment ever deliver us our daily bread. (Yes, I know—you can’t make that up.) If you haven’t heard this story yet, you can listen to this moving six-minute story here.
Looking back on that moment with my son, the sample lady, and me, everything happened because we were open to letting our hearts do what they really wanted to do in that moment. We got everything else out of the way. Did it feel weird and awkward? It sure did. But did it also feel deeply kind, true, loving, and unforgettable? In every way.
Our spiritual being is always right there. Love is always right there to guide and inform our thoughts, words, and actions. I’ve learned that, to let Love lead, I need to be much more like a relaxed otter floating down a river. (I have no idea why that image came to me—lol!) What I’m getting at here is this: when we let go, lighten up, and stop gripping so tightly to whatever we’re holding on to, we stand to gain far more of our daily bread, and we experience a little more (or a lot more) of heaven on earth.
You are the heaven on earth you seek—today, tomorrow, and the day after that. Breathe that in. Release it out. Relax any tension in your face, and go enJOY your daily bread.
With grace, love, and peace,
Julianna
Journal Prompts
Reflect on a moment when someone has shown you unexpected kindness or connection—a “sample lady” moment. How did their actions offer you daily bread? How might you offer the same to someone else today?
Consider areas of your life where you might be gripping too tightly. What might it look like to loosen your hold and “float down the river”? How could this shift allow you to receive more of what’s being offered to you?
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