“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, do not depend not on your own understanding” Proverbs 3:5 NLT
I was hanging on by a thread. Literally. All 5 years of my little kindergarten self had gotten stuck in the hatch of the neighbors tree house (the boys NEVER let me go in) so, while I thought everyone was away I snuck myself in and couldn’t sneak myself out. Hanging on by tiny hands I was stuck in the stratosphere as the earth seemed to loom miles below my flailing feet. My Mom caught wind of my antics, (along with an embarrassing amount of the neighbors) and as a crowd gathered below I remember hearing my Mom’s voice cut through the noise calmly telling me to “let go”. She promised she was there, and that she would catch me. Was. she. crazy?!?! Everything in me thought holding on forever was the best option. However, the very thing that was needed, was the very thing I was was terror-stricken to do. In the midst of the clamor in me, outside of me and even below me…. letting go was the only way to be rescued. So, when the panic surged its greatest and my resolve waned its weakest, I let go. Sure enough I fell, and sure enough I was caught. My Mom’s arms enfolded me as I plummeted all of a few feet back into the earths atmosphere, and entered the realm of safety once again. I was caught. I was held. I was safe.
Ever feel like this?
When we look at the above passage from Proverbs there’s a lot of weight to the idea of trusting God and “not depending on our own understanding.” Our world operates on various systems we have learned to navigate. Coffee wakes us up. We’re excited when our favorite people come over for dinner. Things get dropped, and fall because gravity works. And trusting God with all our hearts often means that challenges and opportunities arise to put that trust to the test. We may think that holding on will help us, when in reality, it actually holds us back. Letting go of what makes sense to us, is actually an opportunity to create space for God to step in.
The idea of “letting go” packs a pretty powerful challenge.
The very thing we are clinging onto for dear life is leaving us hanging and held in a place where we will never be free. Instead, the better (and much harder) thing is trust and letting go when we hear the voice of our Father telling us he will catch us……there’s and invitation in the letting go.
(Pssssst!….We’ve got to listen for the invitation!)
When we find ourselves holding on too tightly, God might ask us to let go, so we exchange the hold, for holding onto him. It isn’t letting go and being careless, it’s investing in our trust of God. It isn’t making the jump out of our stupid choices hoping against all hope that God, by some miracle will catch us. Instead, it’s actually having a relationship with God that is so deep, so true and so rich that when we have to let go, and fall, we can TRUST the fact that the arms we are falling into are strong enough to catch us. We’ve come to learn through faith, opportunity and experience the heart of our Father is to show up in the middle of whatever we are going through, assured that he will catch us.
We may not know everything, understand everything or have the wisdom to navigate and get out of every situation…..but the invitation is there, to grow our trust in God in and out of season. Then, regardless of how overwhelming our circumstances are, no matter how stuck we feel in life, in work, in a relationship issue or in the creative process, we trust God to be who he is-good, kind, loving and worthy of our trust. “Letting go, and letting God” causes us to demonstrate faith in him that he shows up as the hero in our story. We can trust him, even when we don’t understand what is going on, we’re anchored in the truth that he’s good, and willing and able to catch us when we fall.
Much love,
Joy