"If everything is Yours, I can't let it go... 'Cause it was never mine to hold."- "Let Go" by Audrey Assad
What is it about letting go that makes us so afraid? Letting go of hopes, dreams, arrogance, pride... These suppositions that provide a false sense of security that what we have is our own and that by holding onto them, we somehow maintain control.
In a society which promotes getting what you want, how you want it, and when you want it, the idea of not having complete and utter control may seem completely asinine. Why? Because in this "
Age of Entitlement," which promotes narcissism, self-absorption, and materialism, we get what we want
because we deserve it.
How completely contradictory to the idea of grace, in which we receive - not because we deserve - but because of what Christ has given us, ultimately for His Kingdom and Glory!
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Ephesians 2:8-10
God, completely cognizant of our inclination towards self-attribution even specifically added: "so that no one can boast." (v.9)
Perhaps we have become completely absorbed with the gifts, rather than the Giver. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17
How easy it is to forget that we
are nothing - but what God has made us,
have nothing - but what God has graciously given us,
and have achieved nothing - but what God has graciously done for us through the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Perhaps even more daunting is being confronted with the harsh reality of the unknown. God is sovereign and omnipotent:
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 1:8
And yet, it is so easy to falter when He asks us to step out into the deep, mysterious vastness of His Purpose. When He calls us, we leave our own hopes, our own desires, our own pleasures, and essentially, plans for our own life - so that He becomes our Hope, He becomes our true Desire, He becomes our only Pleasure, and we realize that apart from Him, there is no life. But so often, I find myself straddling the edge, looking back longingly at all that I am asked to leave behind. Probably as Lot's wife had done before she was reduced to a pillar of salt.
...So at the edge, I take a plunge. Descending into Him. Getting lost in His presence, but completely enjoying where He is taking me. Suddenly I realize that perhaps I am not falling, but rather I am flying - soaring! Perhaps I am not leaving, but rather finding the peace, joy, and rapture of faithfully serving my Lord and Savior and knowing Him more deeply. I am losing all that I had, but gaining all that God had intended for me, which can never be taken away.
"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead."
Philippians 3:7-11
" ...I have made thee My messenger. Thou shalt go with winged feet. Thou shalt not allow thy foot to be bogged down in the mire of earthly cares and riches... [T]hine heart shall rest in My hand." - "On Winged Feet" in "Come Away My Beloved" by Frances J. Roberts
(This picture is from Richard's skydiving adventure last Saturday. I'm so happy he liked his Christmas present!)
