The Joyous Yes
Real holiness doesn’t feel like holiness; it just feels like you’re dying. It feels like you’re losing it—and you are! Every time you love someone, you have agreed for a part of you to die. You will soon be asked to let go of some part of your false self, which you foolishly thought was permanent, important, and essential. You know God is doing this, in you and with you, when you can somehow smile and trust that what you lost was something you did not need anyway. In fact, it got in the way of what was real. Many were taught to say No without the deep joy of Yes, were trained to put up with dying and just take it on the chin. Saying No to the self does not necessarily please God or please anybody. There is too much resentment and self-pity involved. When God, by love and freedom, can create a joyous Yes inside of you—so much so that you can absorb the usual noes—then it is God’s full work. The first might be resentful dieting; the second is a spiritual banquet.
—Richard Rohr, Yes, and…: Daily Meditations
Real holiness doesn’t always feel noble—it can feel like loss, because love always asks us to let go of something we thought we needed. Often, it’s a part of our false self, something we held as essential but was actually getting in the way of what’s real. When God works in us, He replaces the pain of losing with the joy of knowing we’re being freed.
Saying “no” to ourselves out of mere duty breeds resentment, but when God plants a deep “yes” in our hearts, we can face life’s losses with trust and even gratitude. That inner yes turns sacrifice into abundance and dying to self into a feast of freedom. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics