Grounded in Being Loved
By Jim Cofield
Being loved grounds us. When we are loved we have an essential experience of belonging. An infant in the experience of being loved forms a relational attachment with mom and dad. This relation attachment is essential for physical survival and all future psychological and spiritual development. Without this primitive experience of belonging, of being grounded in love, life will unravel for the child as his or her sense of self begins to fragment. The essential psychological and spiritual need of an infant child is to be loved. Our soul’s deepest sense of being grounded is always anchored relationally!
As we separate from parents our need to be loved never ends. We long to belong. Unfortunately, our egocentricity can leave us attaching to the wrong stuff. Money, houses, degrees, positions, even selective friendships can become the place where we essentially belong. But they prove to be inadequate. The love they can provide, if they can provide any, is limited at best. We need a love that embraces the whole of what we are. We long for a love that embraces and holds the bright side of who we are as well as the dark, shadow side we keep hidden away.
The same is true for our identity as Christians. We are loved by God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Faith in the Trinitarian God is essentially a matter of God being in us and we being in God. God in Christ invites us each day to show up before him with all that we are. We don’t have to edit ourselves to come to Jesus. We can just come. In the deepest terrain of our soul, we long for this love that takes us in completely. We long for a love that holds all that we are. God’s promise is that his love will do any and all of the necessary editing of who we are. Transformation is the work of God’s loving Spirit and not that of our limited ego.
Living our life in the loving embrace of the Trinitarian God occurs as we surrender to this love. Our soul’s deepest need to belong is not anchored in our success or our striving but in our daily surrender of all-we-are to the marvelous embrace of God’s love. God’s love holds us, all of who we are, and in this love, we belong. We are grounded in love and from this love we live.
Consider God embracing all you are! Willingly surrender to this love today and trust he will keep you. You belong in him.
CrossPoint Ministry exists to advocate for pastors and Christian leaders and courage them to believe their own claims and help them find their own voice.
So many lose their voice and forget who they are because of the pressures of ministry. We want to give back the choice to do ministry from a place of freedom and worship and delight instead of duty or obligation.
If you’re a pastor or Christian leader join our upcoming Leader Cohort. You’ll walk away with practical soul enriching teaching as well as tools to aid your relational health and support you in your Kingdom work. You will also have access to a regular small group of peers just like you to engage you in what it looks like to be a pastor at home and in public. Small groups are led by one of CrossPoint’s partners.