Relax in the Name of Love

I have a unique gift of not remembering lyrics to songs. It’s quite astounding. I cannot even remember my own songs that I have written, but I always need cheat sheets (which is very hard to say for a Swedish person by the way – cheat sheet, cheat sheet, cheat sheet). I do remember certain phrases though and then I just mix them up and make up my own lyrics and new melodies even. It drives my teenage daughter crazy. She’s an expert memorizer and sings along perfectly to popular music that plays on the radio, while I make up my own versions. But the Holy Spirit is using this weird quirkiness of mine to speak to me through regular, secular songs. And He tweaks the lyrics. Just like me. He’s speaking my language. Or several different languages, since I happen to love languages. 

Yesterday the Holy Spirit told me: Relax in the name of love. I love that song. (I went to “the interwebs” only to find out that’s not really the lyrics of the song Diana Ross is singing, or the Frankie Goes to Hollywood-song either, but it’s the Holy Spirit’s and my version and we like it the most. We kept the Supremes’ melody though). 

Then I looked up the word “relax” in Hebrew, my new favorite thing to do. Usually one Hebrew word has several different meanings that paint very vivid pictures, not just abstract concepts. Relax is Rapha in Hebrew. That means to sink down, let go, cease striving and wait, but it also means comfort and healing. Jehovah Rapha is even a name of God, the Lord is my Healer, but the root word has to do with being still and resting. 

Then I looked up “opposites of striving” in Merriam-Webster. This is when it became really interesting and the Holy Spirit started drilling down to some of the core issues in my twisted, religious thinking. He’s so good. Opposites of striving: 

rest 

surrender 

make peace 

relax 

reconcile 

yield 

agree 

submit 

capitulate 

collaborate 

abandon

All these words are like echoes from the Living God calling out to His humans that He created: Come to me! Find rest in me! Yield to me! Surrender to me! Submit to me! Collaborate with me! Capitulate to me. Reconcile with me! Agree with me. Make peace with who I am and who I say you are. Abandon yourself to me and my love.

This is where real success lies. The opposite of “attempting” or “making an effort to” is to succeed. It’s the upside down kingdom. We’re doing it all backwards, striving for acceptance and working so hard and trying to be good. That is religion at its core and what I am trying to get away from: this endless slippery slope of failure, because I can never be good enough. But God. We can never impress God with our good works, because it’s not about our good works. It’s about His Good Work. He doesn’t share his Glory with anyone. We can’t add anything to our salvation. Relax. Receive. To quote Yoda from Star wars: “Do or Do Not. There is No Try.” We are not trying to be good. We are already good. Perfect actually. That might seem a bit offensive to some people. I was definitely offended by Jesus saying “Be perfect, like my Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48). Come on Jesus. That is impossible. Until I realized that is the whole point. Yep. It’s not about me.  It’s about Him. And us taking part in his Perfectness. Then we can live from victory, like the Nike-swish: Just Do It. We are not doing any good works to earn anything. 

Jesus’ famous last words: it is finished. That is the beginning of the New Covenant and our New Life and the End of Religion and our Striving. Relax in the name of love.