Letting go isn't a new game show. Perhaps they should have one though. We could even make it a reality show about what people have held onto that they need to let go of. Perhaps I can get paid for coming up with this suggestion. Guess I'll have to let go of that objective. I'm just saying that we have so much fluff in our lives that we need to let go of some of it. It's not like we will miss those boxes of clothes from the 90's that we are still waiting to fit into. Give it up! Let go! Get on with life!
I need to confess that I have great difficulty in letting go of certain items in my life. The adage "let go and let God" is much more difficult than is implied. I have a lot of feelings about letting go in my life. For instance, letting go of my past is very frustrating. We would like to have our emotions healed and be happy all the time (except when we are excited). Emotions are tied to memories of events that form feelings. For example, I have PTSD and his friend Depression that are not so wonderful travelling partners. Perhaps you know them. Sometimes they bring their cousin Anger with them. Although he comes out only at the worst moments!
Letting go is a wonderful thing! And, no, I didn't mean let's go. Again, we could use "let's go" in conjunction with "letting go" if we could only get them to cooperate. We all have our reasons why we don't want to let go the wonderful world of Santa and the Easter Bunny. We hold on so tightly that when it seems that we might lose them, we give them to our kids. That way they can continue to live on. See what I mean?! I don't think we want to let go of some core issues in our lives.
The problem with letting go is that it's too close to admitting we have a problem...an addiction. There, I said it out loud for all of us! Please don't let go of this blog quite yet. What is there in your life that you couldn't do without? Would it be your cell phone, computer, chocolate, coffee or maybe a really nice car? There are a lot more and many of them belong to you and I. Perhaps we are dependent rather than addicted but the end result is/are the same. We don't want to get rid of them even if we are killing ourselves.
I have a confession to make. I love Jesus. I'm addicted to Jesus. I'm dependent on Jesus. I'm in love with Jesus. I cannot, nor will I, let go of the Bible and prayer. It's not like I am steadfast and do all of these every moment of every day. That is not reality. God wants us to live in reality. Sometimes reality sucks.
What if letting go meant letting go of someone or some group? Would we recognize the need to let go rather than be consumed or destroyed by others? We live in a world that thrives on tolerance. Tolerance takes us a step away from reality. What!? We tolerate others behavior that is damaging to our life. Think of the number of spouses (men and women) who stay in a dangerous relationship for any number of good or bad reasons. Do they want to be destroyed? No, they don't. What is happening that people stay where they are?
Negative attention is better than no attention. And so, we stay. Even to death sometimes. We have the chance to leave (most of the time) but we stay. We cannot let go of that person or what that person does give us. An example won't be given here as we all know a story from someone close to us. So, we don't let go.
The best solution to the problems of life is to stand firm and give them to God or someone else. It's not the easiest but easy is not how life is. Life is filled with decisions that are horrible to carry out. When we come to that place in life when we are sick and tired enough; we will begin to be serious with letting go. It's not just the world we live in. It's also the spiritual realm where we hang onto sin rather than let it go and follow Jesus. It's not easy or everyone would do it! Choosing to follow Jesus costs you your life. On the other hand choosing to follow Jesus gives us a new life in its place. Think about what your "letting go" items are. Then do what you know you need to do. Let go!
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