In Christ we are required to let go of much! And like in many relationships of love we think we can do that easily. Let me be the first to tell you....it's not always so easy.
In Christ we are told to consider others as more important than ourselves...it's not so easy either!
In Christ we're not to cling to the things of this world, but to lay up treasures in heaven....yep, not so easy either(small note here, some people have no issue with this, or any of it for that matter, I can only share from my own experience)
I am a sentimental "collector" and have many things that are filled with memories. I remember where I was and how I felt with those things, kind of like a song or fragrance can stir memories. Letting go of those things is like ripping away those memories...like having part of my past(or myself) sliced away.
As you go through life you are forced to let go of many things, the first I remember that I was forced to let go of was a kitten~killed by a dog...the next was a purse(and trust)~stolen from me...then relationships, dreams, homes, cars~ I'm not talking about things you let go of yourself, because you wanted to, but things that life's circumstances and other people have forced you to let go.
The experiences are scattered through the years and you don't have to let go of everything all at once; so it can sneak up on you until all of a sudden you feel quite naked standing there having let go of everything!
Yesterday I had one of those "naked" experiences. God has taken me through a lot of experiences lately of letting go of things, showing me that it's ALL His~ I don't mean just the things that we already know... the sky, the mountains, the sunset, the sunrise~ He has shown me that it is ALL His...the man He lets me live with as my husband is really "His man", the sons I gave birth to, are His men also...the house we live in, the clothes I wear, the very skin I wear is His~ in the kitchen is a cutting board with my name burnt into it, but it's His too! The hair on my head is His! (Let that soak in and quit complaining about your body, your features and your hair, they are all His! and you can also apply that to your spouse! Should you really criticize the things of God?).
When God was showing me all of this, I easily agreed, "Yes Lord! It's all Yours!". It's a lot easier to do things when you're in a conversation with your Heavenly Father, than when life just hits you in the cold daylight.~
~As I've walked through life in my own human wisdom, I have let go of much! Somethings by choice, somethings not by choice at all. My parents moved quite a lot during my childhood, and I let go of friends, homes, schools, teachers, stability~ from there I went through a difficult marriage, I let go of more, the hardest and most regretted is innocence and belief, I let go of my hometown, friends, family, trust, security, as I let go of hope the marriage ended~
I walked through life with little hope for several years(I was not walking with Jesus then, I don't recommend this!), I was looking for a place to be, a little, quiet corner of the world, left alone to live my life, to heal and not deal with so many things taken by force or to have to let go.
Find a place to heal I did! I found a life of peace and soul's contentment, for many years I lived in "peace and happiness", I loved my cocoon! But as life always does, change happens and you have to let go of things again. My cocoon crumbled around me and there was the hard world again, ready to take things from me ...my elderly father, my husband, my spiritual father, my marriage, my home, my family, my world~
Picking up the pieces that were left I gathered the things that I could, things that had been part of my "peace and happiness" and moved on again, looking for another corner of the world where there could be a new "peace and happiness". The search can be tricky and treacherous! Sometimes we think we've found it when actually we've found something worse than we left. (Now I know to search in God). I have come to learn that peace and happiness are not in things or places, but in God.
With going through my recent lessons from God, that it's ALL His, I thought I'd learned that "peace and happiness" can only be found in Him! But yesterday I was shown that I'm still holding on to things(it was a little Piggy Bank that could transport me back to the "cocoon of peace and happiness"), that even in clinging to memories I'm preventing myself from walking where He intends for me to go. How can I cling to things, to sentimentality, to memories, to "peace and happiness" and still be able to pick up my cross daily and follow Him?
This is my current lesson! The first step is to choose to let go, recognize that it is truly ALL His, then ask Him to help you with the rest. So Lord, please help me to let go of the desire to create a cocoon, help me grow into the "peace and happiness" of Your presence and it alone! I surrender all~
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
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