Holding Things Loosely

Our deepest feelings. Those misty ones, hard to get a handle on. As the sights, sounds, and smells of different seasons began to create nostalgic itches inside.

Letting go. turning loose. Releasing the squeeze.

Being better at smothering than loving, we are blown away with the thought of relaxing our gargantuan grip. Because releasing introduces the terror of risk, the panic of losing control. The parting cannot happen without inward bleeding. The coward heart fears to surrender its prized toys. Even though it must say goodbye eventually.

Like releasing a dream; or allowing a child space to grow up, letting a friend have the freedom to be and to do; or letting go of a love one. What maturity that requires!

We are often hindered from giving up our treasures out of fear for their safety. But wait. Everything is safe which is committed to our God. In fact nothing is really safe which is "not" so committed. No child. No job. No romance. No friend. No future. No dream.

The greater the possessiveness, the greater the pain. The old miser within us will never lie down quietly and die obediently to our whisper. He must be torn out like a cypress tap root. He must be extracted in agony and blood, like a tooth from the jaw. And we will need to steel ourselves against his piteous begging, recognizing it as echoes from the hollow chamber of self-pity, one of the most hideous sins of the human heart.

What is it that God wants you to do then? To hold things loosely, the He might reign without rival. With no threats to His throne. And with just enough splinters in our pride to keep our hands empty and our heart warm.