Beginnings

January 8, 2024

The skin is the body's largest organ, protecting us against the elements and inflictions. Shedding our skin removes dead or damaged skin cells and allows new, healthier cells to take their place. This is a continuous and lifetime process.

In soul work, we continuously begin again by shedding the old and embracing the new. So, we move through the world in a self-renewing spiritual temple. Many old things that used to serve and protect us are no longer needed because, through spiritual work, newer ideas and understandings replace them.

As a teenager in the Deep South, my culture shaped me to think that my religious denomination, class, race, and education were the best. All this was done subtly as well as in obvious ways. I moved around in that skin for years. But when exposed to new ideas, I formed a direct relationship with the Divine and shed my cultural indoctrination. My religion taught me that everyone who did not believe as I did would be sent to hell by God. However, from my time alone with God, my heart knew that the religious-centric view of God was not for me. How could a God of love condemn half the souls God created? I shed my old second-hand God and formed my own direct relationship with God.

But the shedding never stops. Other ideas replaced those that served me for a period but became outmoded. For instance, I am just beginning to understand the profundity of the mind-body connection in ways I never knew existed. Yesterday, I had a painful sports injury that healed almost instantaneously through acupuncture. The practitioner had studied the neuro pathways of the body and knew which parts of the body are linked to other parts. Therefore, she was able to relieve tension and redirect the energy flow. We continually shed outmoded assumptions and beliefs as we experience life.

Also, my thought that so much depends on me is being slowly replaced with the direct awareness that things are done not because of me but through me, from a higher power. The implications for this are enormous. Being simply a conduit takes away my heavy sense of overwhelming responsibility. But I also must give up the outcomes I want. That is difficult because even if my ego serves my soul, my prayers may not be answered as I hope.

Thankfully, if I can be open in my spiritual practice, presence replaces thought patterns that no longer serve my spirit, and the Divine strengthens me to begin again. Having brothers and sisters for support and for me to support, is a profound strength-giver.

Inquiry: What has been an old skin that you shed?

Dear God,

As I continue, I pray for new skin that helps me move in the world as a conduit for your plans. When your plans cancel the plans of my own, I pray for the strength to accept them. Amen

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