Letting Go

She knew where she was going when she drove away at 7.45 am. To the church where she had gone for half a century, only a couple of miles away.

After church she drove ... home. Only it was different. The house was empty apart from some random bits of furniture and closets stuffed with the left-overs of life. Her confusion grew. Where was she supposed to be? How could she get there?

A kind neighbour saw her, recognised she was lost and phoned a relative of hers, who reminded her that several weeks ago she had moved to a sheltered housing scheme. The neighbour led her back there, but left her in a different area of parking lot, not recognising the totality of forgetfulness going on.

Half an hour later an employee of the sheltered complex recognised her and shepherded her back to her home. Traumatised no doubt, and revealing the need now to move on. To let go of the car keys and relinquish driving forever.

Letting go is never easy. It is easy to cling on to the familiar because it is familiar. We feel it represents part of our identity. To let go implies to launch out into the unknown and perhaps be lost.

Yet paradoxically it can be that in letting go, rather than being lost, one is found. One is found because one becomes more fully involved in the new life, having lost that escape route which seemed to offer a return to normality.

Before the birth of our first child, we couldn't wait until her birth so that we could get back to 'normal'. We quickly realized, after her birth, that we were facing a new normal. Nothing would ever be as it was, but it was good. It was all good.

Mhairi has told me about a mime exercise where you act out the letting go, demonstrating that it is only as you properly let go of whatever you cling to that you are able to grasp fully where you are going.

It takes courage to move on. It takes courage to let go, at whatever stage of life we are. Jesus repeated over and over, 'Do not be afraid.'  'Take heart'. 'I am with you always.'

May you be encouraged and encourage others today as we all walk this journey home. Let go. Move on. Who knows what special times lie just around the corner?

Take heart. Don't be afraid. Psalm 63:8... 'My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.'

God is the only one to whom we should continue to cling throughout life.

Let Go

The message challenged me. Following Jesus does involve giving up. It requires you to give up what you have, but are not meant to have, and giving up what you do, that you are not meant to do.

Jesus has fitted each of us for a specific purpose. He calls each of us to do something special, and he has equipped us so that as we rely on him in that purpose, great things happen. The other stuff we are doing, good though it may be, may not be the best. It may not be what God has called us to do.

So looks like I need to take some time out to ask the Holy Spirit to examine me on this one. What do I have, that I am not meant to have? That’s a tough one. I am in the process of a spring de-clutter so perhaps ‘things’ will be highlighted as I sift through drawers and closets.

What am I doing that I am not meant to be doing? And, as an obvious corollary of that, what am I neglecting to do which I have been made to do? I’d like to think it might be the housework that I’m not meant to be doing! 

Scripture says that God gives us the desires of our hearts – and my biggest desire remains to be writing more. But my days are full, so I guess that’s where I need to figure out what I am to let go of.

An on-going task. Like the de-cluttering.