Letting Go – A Lent Devotional

I have a confession to make.  My attempt to keep up with the daily laundry for Lent has been abysmal.  By the third day I was already so far gone I figured that there was no way I could make it to the end of March.  Every single day I either think “I’m going to start anew.  I can do this!” or “I’m just going to forget about this whole stupid idea.  I can’t put away laundry.  I’m a complete Lent failure.”  Unfortunately, most days it’s the latter.  Thankfully God never gives up on me.

The other part of my personal Lent challenge, daily devotional, has been a little bit better than my laundry challenge.  One of the devotionals from last month connected with me.  Letting go.  As parents we really want to hold our little ones close, and that’s okay, especially when the world is such a scary place.  But if we hover and guard and don’t let them spread their wings they won’t ever learn to fly on their own.  In our spiritual lives if we keep our cards too close to our chest or don’t take a chance when we feel the Spirit move, we may never realize our potential.

The following is from Selena Wright

On the day my daughter was born, something broke (besides my water!)  A connection was broken.  There was a cord that linked us together; it was her lifeline for nine months and on the day that she and I yelled and pushed our way to new life, I had to let go.  I had to watch her dad cut the cord that connected us.  t had to happen, but I still grieved.

No more kicks, no more hiccups, and no longer would she belong to no one but me.  Yet that very cord that sustained her life would prohibit it.  The cord had to be cut so that her dad could take her for a walk, so that her grandma could bathe her, and her sister could hold her.  I didn’t want to let go when I thought of all that I would lose, our connection, my ability to keep her safe and warm, but it happened, when I consented to let go…it didn’t even hurt!  It seems the things we desperately want to hold on to can only truly bless us when we let them go.

There is much in all of our lives that we create or hold or carry, from ideas and energy to forgiveness and hope.  We get used to these things living inside us.  When they remain in our head or our hearts, we have control over them and they belong to us alone, but if we keep them too long, they will die.  They way of creation calls us to bring forth life and to let go.  For only when we give our gifts to the world, can those gifts live and grow!

It’s so easy to stuff good ideas back down before they made us move and do what’s right.  It’s easy to look the other way when we see something that quickens our spirit and says “do something before it’s too late!”  It’s easy to convince ourselves to hold on to our good ideas or our hurt or our forgiveness because letting go is hard.  Letting go means action and action takes work.  It’s so much easier to stay complacent or overly protective.  Like Selena Wright said; “Only when we give our gifts to the world, can those gifts live and grow.”

Is there anything you want to let go of?