The Lioness Rising: Love, Relationships, and Freedom

There’s a strength within the heart of a lioness that often goes unnoticed-not because it’s hidden, but because it’s sacred. She doesn’t chase. She doesn’t perform. She doesn’t force. She is. Her presence alone carries power, and her love-fierce yet free-is never obligated or performed.

Relationship Isn’t All or Nothing:

 Relationships are a gift.  An opportunity to relate to someone.  This gift can sometimes get off balance when we decide that someone is obligated to give us all or give us nothing. and visa versa.

We sometimes believe that relationships must look a certain way all the time- be it constant check-ins, daily texts, endless emotional availability. Though those are all beautiful gestures, it’s important to check that belief.  Is it coming from a place of insecurity or fear?  True relationship, like the lioness in her pride, allows space. She knows her sisters are near, even when they’re not inher sight.

Trust is the tether, not performance.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.”

Manufacturing moments to prove loyalty is not what this verse is about.  It’s about helping each other along the way. Relationships are not measured by constant presence or perfect performance. But, by consistency of love.

Proverbs 17:17 reminds us that real friends love “at all times”—not just in seasons of ease, agreement, or daily interaction. Their love isn’t transactional. It’s not based on how often you talk or whether you’re always aligned. It’s based on covenant, not convenience.

This verse affirms the lioness truth: friendship is not forced or frantic—it’s faithful. Even if you don’t speak every day, even if life pulls you into different rhythms, love doesn’t disappear. It abides. It holds space. It knows when to rise and when to rest.

Mel Robbins captures this beautifully in The Let Them Theory:

“Let them be themselves because they are revealing who they are to you. Just let them and then you get to choose what you do next.”

There is deep peace in simply letting people be, without needing to manage or monitor the connection.

I have a best friend.  We have been in each others life for 30 years. Most of which has been long distant relationship. Now, if either of us felt the other owed them, our relationship would be off balance.  If either of us believed that is it all of nothing when it comes to this relationship, we would have ended it a long time ago.  Life is full and what is right in front of us can be very consuming.  Through the years, we have allowed each other the space to do what we need and yet be with each other fully when we are in connection.  We, thankfully, are able to trust in the tethered connection, not performance.

I Don’t Perform for Anyone and No One Is to Perform for Me

Performance is rooted in fear-fear of rejection, of not being enough.

But perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

The lioness doesn’t dance for approval. She rests in the knowing of who she is. And I, too, am learning to rest in that knowing. I no longer perform for acceptance, and I do not require others to perform for mine. When someone withdraws, changes, or no longer shows up the way they once did, we don’t need to chase them or change ourselves. We can “let them,” as Robbins suggests, and allow that to be freedom rather than a rejection.

We have a fun saying, “Not my monkey, not my circus.”  This saying was brought to light when we were discussing worry, control, staying in our lane.  This statement has helped me find so much balance and revealed to me where I needed to stay in my lane.  But let’s be clear.  In reality, I don’t want anyone…even my own monkeys…performing for me and I won’t perform for others.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galations 1:10 NIV

“Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety.” Proverbs 29:25

Freedom in Obligation and Expectations

There is a vast difference between love and obligation. Obligation says, “I have to.” Love says, “I get to.” When expectations become chains, they smother the very love they’re trying to protect.

Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

This includes the slavery of relational expectation.

Love in its purest form is never heavy-it uplifts, never demands.

Mel Robbins echoes this by saying: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

In other words, let go of expectations that someone will change to fit your mold. Let them reveal themselves. And from that truth, you get to choose your peace. There is a quiet wisdom in observation. People may speak intentions with their words, but it is their actions that reveal their truth. When someone shows you who they are—through patterns, priorities, presence, or absence—believe them. Not with judgment. Not with bitterness. But with clarity.

This doesn’t mean you stop loving them. It means you stop writing a script for who you wish they would be and start accepting who they are. It’s the difference between fantasy and reality, between holding on to potential and honoring the present truth.

Believing them doesn’t mean you close your heart. It means you open your eyes.

It’s a form of self-respect. When someone shows you they won’t meet you in depth, in effort, in integrity, or in presence, you no longer need to try to earn what isn’t being offered freely. You stop performing. You stop pleading. You stop adjusting yourself to fit into a version of connection that isn’t accurate.

And in this awareness, you find peace. You find freedom. You find the lioness within—the one who sees clearly, who walks with grace, who stays soft but no longer shrinks.

Love Never Fades-It Just Reorganizes Through Frequency

This is a truth I’m learning in layers. Sometimes we grieve a shifting friendship or a love that feels different than it once did. But what if it hasn’t died? What if it’s just been reorganized? Energy changes. Seasons shift. Frequencies rise and fall. But love-true love-transcends time and space. Love is energy. And energy doesn’t die—it shifts. It rises, it stretches, it softens, it grows. Sometimes it takes a new form, but its essence remains. That’s the beauty of love—it doesn’t vanish, it evolves.

There’s a freedom in knowing that just because a relationship changes, it doesn’t mean it failed.

Love reorganizes through frequency—

through spiritual shifts,

seasons, and

soul growth.

As we rise into new versions of ourselves, the way we relate to others transforms, too. Not because love is less, but because our frequency requires something different.

This isn’t abandonment. It’s alignment.

When you’re no longer in constant contact with someone, or when a relationship drifts into a different rhythm, it doesn’t mean there’s bitterness or loss. Sometimes, it’s just resonance. You’re vibrating in a new way. And the connection is finding its rightful place within that.

Freedom is letting love live in the space it belongs now, not clinging to the form it used to take.

I referred back to my long term friendship.  We have risen, fallen, spoken, had silence, laughed, yelled…but through it all we have allowed one another to grow, to shift, to change entirely and that freedom has been just that, freedom.

You can love people from afar. You can bless them in silence. You can honor the past and still welcome your present. That’s not disloyalty. That’s maturity. That’s wholeness.

When relationships are free of obligation or performance, freedom to evolve reside.

Romans 8:38-39 TPT reminds us 
“So now I live with the confidence that there is nothing in the universe with the power to separate us from God’s love. I’m convinced that his love will triumph over death, life’s troubles, fallen angels, or dark rulers in the heavens. There is nothing in our present or future circumstances that can weaken his love. [39] There is no power above us or beneath us—no power that could ever be found in the universe that can distance us from God’s passionate love, which is lavished upon us through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One!”

Final Thoughts

Love is not meant to be caged in roles or routines. It is meant to move—like wind, like water, like breath. It finds the shape that best serves growth. It whispers, “I still see you,” even from a distance. It doesn’t grip tightly out of fear—it flows freely in faith.

This is the lioness path: she does not chase, but she also does not close. She loves in truth. She trusts the rising. And she releases what no longer aligns—not in resentment, but in reverence.

You are free to love without needing it to look a certain way. Free to let your frequency lead. Free to honor every sacred connection for what it was, what it is, and what it is becoming.

 

I am the lioness. I am not here to be tamed, nor to tame others. I am here to live, to love freely, and to let go of anything that requires me to shrink, perform, or fear. I’m learning to honor the love that changes form, to release obligation, and to let relationships flow in the freedom they were always meant to.

And in that freedom, love doesn’t end. It expands.