WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE CHILDLIKE?
I am on the floor in child’s pose, my body folded over bent knees and forehead on the floor. I breathe deeply, feeling the release of my body onto my mat. A deep inner shift happens here, with the release of breath and the surrender to gravity. Breathing slows, the tightly strung muscles in my hips and low back soften. Stillness begins to work its magic.
DEPENDENCE AND SURRENDER
I think of the words of Jesus, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. This posture helps me to become more childlike. This Balasana pose symbolizes a child in the womb. There is no other image which speaks so clearly of dependence, innocence, and surrender than a baby floating in the home the mother’s body has prepared for her. Fully dependent on someone else for every need, and waiting for the fullness of time. Our ego seeks to keep us from this place.
Dependence is not prized; I must be a self-made woman. But the way of faith provides another perspective. The freedom of freefalling into love which Barbara Brown Taylor describes as trusting “the wide net spread beneath the most dangerous of days”.
The muscles in my back and shoulders are tight revealing how I have been carrying the weight of the world this week; the news stories of fear, disease, hatred, injustice, the struggle to listen, learn and repent. I see the burdens I have carried unnecessarily. As I sit in child’s pose, I remember, I can transfer this load onto the shoulders of another much stronger than I. Breathing and stretching, gradually releasing.
HUMILITY
In this posture, my eyes cannot take in the world around me, there are no visuals to distract. There is no gazing about the room, no people or projects to steal my attention. Instead, I am forced to focus inward, reminded of the desired quality of humility, as I sit with face to the floor. When God’s people would experience a visitation from Him, the reaction would always be to fall prostrate before His presence in humility and awe. Not only is this posture healing for the body, it is also healing for my soul, which often tries to live life on my own terms, clinging tightly to self-sufficiency.
As I settle into the pose I am reminded of this prayer,
It pokes me on the shoulder and points out my inability to control most of what happens in life, and it directs my gaze to another who does wield control over all, but often waits for me to surrender.
REST
In yoga, child’s pose is used for rest and relaxation, a reset after a particularly strenuous sequence. I need the reminder to rest. Left to my own devices, I do not willingly choose it, but Jesus invites me there. His words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”, remind me that the systems of this world which tell me to keep striving, producing, and hustling are not the ones which bring real life. Here, on the floor, I release the false narrative playing in my head that I need to work to be loved, I need to earn the right to take up space. My childlike posture reminds me that I have a Father who loves me, period. No strings attached, no badges to earn, no quotas to achieve.
And I can feel the deep exhale, the sigh of relief as I surrender.
LET’S GET PERSONAL
What is holding you back from surrendering to God?
Are there areas of your life you are holding onto because you have waited too long for an answer, and now feel you need to make something happen? (under the surface this means we think we know best the timing of things!)
Do you think your plans for your life are better than God’s plans? We have been conditioned in society to fight for what we want, to hustle and strive, surrender sounds too much like losing.
Are you afraid of what surrender might mean for you? What you will have to let go of that you are gripping so tightly? Depending on your view of God, you may be afraid of what He might ask of you. Do you see the Divine as a disappointed task master or angry father, or do you see God as the loving Father from the story of the Prodigal?
Consider praying the serenity prayer as a way to continue growing in surrender to the One who is Love.
Print off a copy of of the full Serenity Prayer here.