"There's Nothing" - a Three-Day Devotional by Amanda Cook Sample

“THERE’S NOTHING” DAY 3

A further exploration and journal prompt on Romans 8:38-39

Clear a space for yourself, a place you feel safe and tended to. It could be a chair, a sofa, or the floor. Maybe it’s outside in the sun. Bring some paper and a pen.

Using the format from yesterday’s mindfulness prayer, center your awareness on the Love of God, that stays with you, like oxygen stays with you, like gravity stays with you. All throughout the day, the Love of God goes with you. While you sleep, the Love of God watches over you. As you grieve, the Love of God grieves with you. As you breathe, the Love of God breathes with you. There is no separation, no distance in this Love, the Love of God is a complete thought, a full circle, and you are in the middle of the circuit.

Bring your mind into the field of possibility, it might help to picture a field around your inner sanctuary. Picture yourself lying down on that green grass. Here the sun is high and the wind is soft. You feel safe, like everything is going to be ok. Here you might start to notice the things that worry you, the thoughts that come up. Gently bring your awareness to your breath. The thoughts come and go, Breathe in. Breathe out.

Focus your attention.

Breathe in, Nothing can separate me from the Love of God.

Breathe out, Nothing can separate me from the Love of God.

Breathe in, Nothing can separate me from the Love of God.

Breathe out, Nothing can separate me from the Love of God.

Again.

Again.

Do this slowly, gently, for five minutes. Let your mind begin to build a picture in your imagination around this thought. Perhaps it looks like a bright, white light, maybe it feels like warmth, like belonging. Maybe the worries that felt like mountains have shrunk to marbles, maybe they’re still looming. That’s ok. Keep breathing and bringing your focus back to the quiet but concrete phrase, “Nothing can separate me from the Love of God.”

As you focus, begin to jot down what comes to mind as you stay focused on the Love of God in the field of possibility.

Write the words that feel like goodness, like light, like hope, like love down. If none cross your mind, just keep returning to the borrowed hope of Romans 8:38-39. Thank God we can borrow the hope of another when our hope is in the shop for repairs. If that’s you today, know that there is enough hope to go around, to carry you, to lift your spirit, without you needing to summon the energy for it yourself. We hope with and for each other, and we lean into the words of the author of this Book.

“Nothing can separate me from the Love of God”