By Kathy Tuan-MacLean
Welcoming Prayer
(A Prayer of Detachment)
Jesus, I release my need to feel safe and secure.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Jesus, I release my need to be accepted and approved.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Jesus, I release my need to control this person or event.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Jesus, I release my need to change reality but accept it as it is.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
As Covid-19 progresses and everything in our world changes for the foreseeable future, we may feel panicked and vulnerable. Worried for our elderly parents/grandparents. Worried for our children. Worried for ourselves, our campuses, our country, our world. In this time, the spiritual discipline of detachment can be helpful.
When I first heard about detachment (also called indifference), I felt challenged because I’m overly attached to everything! But unlike Buddhism where detachment is the path to enlightenment, Jesus invites us to attach wholeheartedly to him alone—the only one who can rightly order all other priorities—so that we might experience the shalom of God.
Welcoming Prayer is a quick, practical and easy way to pray towards detachment. I learned it from Adele Calhoun (who also wrote IVP’s Spiritual Disciplines handbook) in spiritual direction training. It’s a great prayer for young parents, working people, and any of us when we feel triggered by fear, anger, or other strong emotions.
Adele says we all have three primal needs: safety, love, and control. When our needs aren’t met, our amygdala sends out fight or flight messages to the rest of our body.
Our needs aren’t bad, but over-attachment to them plays havoc on our emotions, bodies, and relationships. We can’t make ourselves or our loved ones safe. We look for love in all the wrong places. We can’t control anything. Welcoming prayer helps us relinquish everything to Jesus. We welcome his presence as love incarnate, our ultimate safety, and the one who orchestrates all our circumstances.
As we wrestle with the reality that much of our lives are upended and our future as we know it is unclear, may we experience the love and peace of Christ Immanuel, God with us.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Welcoming Prayer
(A Prayer of Detachment)
Jesus, I release my need to feel safe and secure.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Jesus, I release my need to be accepted and approved.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Jesus, I release my need to control this person or event.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Jesus, I release my need to change reality but accept it as it is.
Welcome Jesus, welcome.
Kathy serves as InterVarsity’s National Faculty Ministry Director. Since 1990, she’s ministered to undergraduates, graduate students and faculty in New York City, Boston and now Baltimore. She’s passionate about people experiencing Jesus—His love, His grace, and His reconciled community—and loves feeding people, literally and spiritually. She has a Ph.D in Human Development & Social Policy from Northwestern University. Her dissertation was on “The Interracial Friendships of White & Asian College Students,” a topic that capitalized on her passion for racial reconciliation. She met her husband Scott at ONS, currently has 2 kids in college and one just recently graduated, and Kathy is hoping to write a book on spiritual formation for moms.
