Day 6 - Embodiment & the Bible

“No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety.” (Psalm 16:9, NLT)

“My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises!” (Psalm 57:7, NLT)

“You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.” (Psalm 63:5, NLT)

In the same way we can feel overly familiar with feeling stress in our bodies, it’s common to feel not so familiar with how safety feels in our body. And while there certainly isn’t enough space here to fully unpack this, I do want to say one thing very clearly before we jump into a small devotional: how we are wired and what we have walked through in our lives can deeply impact the ways that we experience safety, or lack thereof. Nothing included in this devotional is intended to spiritually bypass your experience or shame you for the ways that connecting with safety in your body might feel complex. And if this does complex, I mostly want to say: You are not alone.

I’m curious, when you think about the idea of safety, what pops into your mind? Now, let’s pause another moment here and chew on a different kind of question: when you think about how we experience safety in our bodies, what do you notice happening in your body?

I love how the psalmists don’t only give us rich language to describe stress and overwhelm. Their language is just as embodied and deep when they talk about experiencing a groundedness and peace in their bodies–guttural experiences of safety.

The liken this kind of embodied safety to their pulse beating with joy as their whole body rests securely. They sing of their heart being sweetly settled, anchoring their melodies and songs. They speak of holistic delight, delight that’s reminiscent of the bliss we experience when enjoying a rich and delectable meal.

Now, before we carry on, I’m curious: As you think about verses like this, how do they sit with you? Do they come across as platitudes that are disconnected from the messiness of life? Do they encourage your body to anchor into a sense of groundedness? Do they feel sweet, do they sting, or some combination of the two?

Maybe safety is not something that you’ve known down in your bones, and a starting point to connect with an embodied sense of safety might be tuning in with a longing. And maybe longings for safety feel risky, like an opportunity to be hurt or disappointed. Maybe safety is something that you have known, but it feels like in this season of life, you don’t know how you would ever intersect with what the psalmists are singing about.

Wherever you are, I wonder what it might be like to simply slow down, noticing what happens in your body as you sit with these ancient words. Rather than these words prescribing “shoulds” or shame, what if they offered us an invitation? What if these words might invite us into glimpses and tastes of beauty and goodness that God longs for us to experience, and even if we haven’t fully experienced this kind of safety in our lives, maybe there’s opportunity to create experiences in our lives and the lives of others, joining with God toward making all things new and right.

Even if right now, it’s solely a distant and hypothetical idea, see what it’s like to connect with these expressions of an embodied sense of safety. And just as we’ve already seen the psalmists do many times, if it feels most authentic, add in as many “both-ands” as you need to, giving voice to all the depths of your soul.