All My Fears and Failures

I choked up during the opening song at church this morning. Two verses into it and I'm standing there, overwhelmed. I don't know why it hit me so hard, but it stayed with me all day long. As only music can do, it burrowed inside me and stole my breath away before I knew what hit me. Here's the line that landed the blow:

"So take me as you find me, all my fears and failures..."

It's a simple, powerful request to be accepted, embraced, loved and respected for exactly what I am and exactly how I am. In my spiritual tradition this acceptance is a promise of faith that I have a responsibility to live into. It's waiting for me whether I am willing or able to see it; whether I am willing or able to allow myself the comfort of that embrace.

And, as overwhelming as that kind of acceptance is, more overwhelming still is the responsibility to offer it to others. Yes, that's the message of the song that's hardest to accept. Those "others" are all around me everyday; looking for and quietly asking for a generosity of acceptance, hopeful that I will see them not for who they are but for the better self they are trying to be.

And, there I am asking them to do the same for me.


© 2010 David Berry