As Yourself: The Sacred Work of Embodying Grace (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780835820783)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." --Matthew 22:39

What does it mean to love others "as yourself?"

For spiritual director, therapist, and former pastor Caroline Vogel, loving God and loving others always came easy. What was much harder, as she discovered during a difficult season in her life, was the "as yourself" part. What did Jesus mean when he said to love others as yourself?

In this heartening exploration of learning to love ourselves as God loves us, Vogel invites us to embrace God's deep and abiding love, with our whole being, just as we are, today and every day.

Through spiritual practices, Biblical insights, and personal story, Vogel shows us how to move from striving for God's love to simply receiving it. With a gentle and wise voice, Caroline teaches us how to slow down, steady our minds, open our hearts, and tap into the life-giving flow of God's grace that is already within us - calling us out of our perfectionism, fear, or shame, calling us toward our own belovedness.

Drawing on her own deep relationship with the Holy Spirit, Vogel reveals that when we are truly aligned with the Spirit and follow Her lead -- mind, heart, and body -- we are being infused by God's grace moment by moment. We are breathing the Spirit and the Spirit is breathing us. We are living embodied grace inside and out.

If you struggle to love yourself as God does, yearn to know God's love more deeply, and wonder what it's like to embody grace in your daily life, this book is for you.

Welcome to the journey of coming home to yourself in God's love, as yourself.

In As Yourself, readers will explore:

• Why receiving God's love is as important as giving it away.
• How "hustling" for God's love is the opposite of living embodied grace.
• How shame is often a barrier to loving ourselves and others.
• How grace already lives inside us; we simply need to open to that truth.
• Biblical stories that illuminate the theology of "as yourself."
• A dozen spiritual practices to help you embody grace.