Letting Go . . .

(Originally Written: 2013)

Have you ever taken a walk in the woods at the end of winter?

When spring is just beginning to think about coming to visit?

Most of the trees are bare, except the evergreens and pines.

Everything is still brown and gray except for an occasional, rare glimpse of green.

You notice all the leaves that blanket the forest floor . . .

But have you ever looked up to notice all the dead leaves still hanging on?

Through wind, rain, sleet, and snow . . . they still hold on.

They are dead.  Dried up.  Without life.

Yet their branches won’t release them.

Why?  Do you think maybe they just can’t bear to let them go?

I can hear those little trees saying, “No!  These are mine!  I am afraid of what will happen if I let them go!”

And the Lord saying, “Every season of your life, you have let go of your dead leaves, and I have given you new ones.  And every season you have grown taller and stronger and more full and beautiful.  Do you not trust Me?”

And the little tree saying, “But these are my favorite ever!  This past Spring was the BEST Spring ever, and there will never be another crop of leaves as wonderful as these!”

And the Lord says, “Little tree.  They are dead.  They have finished what they were called to do.  Now they must fall and fertilize the ground and fulfill their next purpose.  Let them go.”

What if all of nature did such a thing?  What if all of nature held on to the old, refusing to welcome the new?

What if the caterpillar refused to build its cocoon, because it couldn’t imagine anything better than crawling around chewing leaves .  . . or if the bear refused to come out of hibernation because sleep was sooooo much better than then hard work of finding food . . . or the flower bulb refused to rise to the surface and face the sun, choosing the cozy warmth of the dark underground instead?

Reminds me of the verse, “If any man is in Christ, He is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, new things have come.”  2 Corinthians 5:17

The thing is, we love the old.

The people of Israel were bound in slavery in Egypt.

It was terror. It was oppression. It was deprivation.

It was hard labor, no rest, and a miserable existence cut short at the end of a whip.

It was baby boys murdered for no reason, and daily bearing burdens too hard to endure.

It was helplessness and hopelessness, brokenness and pain, unrelenting grief.

But when they found themselves delivered and in the desert, having to trust God, they wanted to go back to Egypt.

Back to Egypt??  Why?

Because they longed for what they knew and understood. 

And so do we.

There may be things that are all wrong, dysfunctional, unhealthy, and destructive.

But it feels normal, comfortable, and safer than the thing God is calling us to do.

We’d rather have the hell we know than the heaven we can’t understand.

And God says, “Trust Me.  I love you.  I have better things, new things, beautiful things for you.  Let go of what is normal and come to Me.”

But we cling with all our might to what we don’t want but have to have to be okay.

What do you have to have to be okay?

What makes you feel comfortable and right with the world, but God is saying,

Let go?

The truth is we just don’t really believe He loves us better than we can love ourselves.

If we travel this road with Him, it may be hard, but if it is of Him, it will be best.

Our pride fights and wrestles and says, No, I know best. 

I know better than He does.

And we miss the blessing.  We miss the joy.  We miss the growth.

All of us are in a season.

Some of you may be in the warm active busy summer of your life.

Some may be in the dead of winter, where the wind chills you to the bone, and all that you know is that another storm is coming.

But whatever season we are in, God is Faithful.

Trusting Him there is how we grow, how we become all He wants us to be.

Follow Him even if there is no sunshine in sight.

Follow Him even if letting go is terrifying.

Because following Him into the unknown is far better than staying where you are, stuck, determined to get your way, clinging to comforts that have long ago lost their substance.

The Psalmist said that God’s lovingkindness was “better than life” (Psalm 63:3)

How did he know?

Maybe because he chose to follow, to obey, to seek, and to trust even when everything in him said to go back to what was familiar, comfortable, safe, and understood.

God loves you.  He does not disappoint.  Let go of your fears and go where He leads. Even if the world around you says you’ve lost your mind.  He is the only One Who is truly, ultimately safe.

“O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”  Psalm 34:8