Anything you hold too tightly or closely has you rather than you having it. We must learn to loosen our hold on both people and things to allow maintain proper perspective. Nothing we have is ours. Everything is simply on loan to us. We must learn to follow God’s Will in handling our stewardship of the things within our realm of responsibility.
When we look at our lives and what we hold dear they tend to fall into the following categories:
• Things/possessions/material goods
• Positions: jobs, social status, relational roles
• Dreams/aspirations: what we want to do, accomplish, achieve
• Relationships
Personally my biggest challenge has always been in my relationships with family and friends, especially watching children growing, learning, and struggling to become their own independent selves. You want to do everything you can to protect children. Yet you also, must realize that as much as you do, you can’t protect them from everything. You can’t keep them safe from all of life’s pain. They will experience disappointments from family and friends. They will encounter scrapes and bruises, both physical and emotional. They will learn to bend and recover.
Hopefully they will also learn to stand strong on the important issues and they will also come to know Christ as their Savior. Whatever their choices, they are ultimately in God’s hands. If we are blessed to see them grow and mature into responsible followers of Christ, we can rejoice. If they choose another path or we lose them to the world or to early death, then we must pray for strength to endure the loss and keep faith in God.
If you look to the stories of the Bible, we see excellent examples of having faith and trust in God to “let go” of our own will and hold on those we love. Abraham was willing to submit to God’s will to the point of sacrificing his only son Isaac. Abraham had faith and through his works (willingness to sacrifice) he demonstrated his submission to God and belief that God keeps His promises. Even he couldn’t see how it would work.
Abraham was an early precursor to what God would ultimately do when he sent His Son, Jesus, to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. God loved us enough to send His only Son to die for us (John 3:16). God’s plan and submitting to it is the ultimate in faith. Mary, mother of Jesus, from the moment the angel appeared to her had faith to submit no matter the cost.
Mary held onto God’s promise and suffered loss of her social status. Imagine the comments that were flying among her neighbors as it became known she was pregnant and technically married to Joseph, whom everyone “knew”, could not be the father. As Mary and Joseph brought Jesus into the world, guarded and guided him, how many times did they flee with little more than they could carry away from danger? Then as Jesus grew and readied to fulfill His mission of sacrifice, what Mary must have felt in her heart, the heart of a mother, wanting to keep her child safe, but knowing He had a greater purpose. Then to see Him upon the cross! What pain. Yet she submitted, she loosened her hold and let her son, God’s Son, be who He had to be and do what He had to do.
Most of us will not be asked to watch a child die a horrible death. Some will through accident, illness, or evil lose a child or another loved one. How horrible the pain that is endurable only through holding tightly to the One who loves us so much: God!
Ultimately there is only God to hold onto. To hold onto Him with all our heart, all our strength, with everything we are can see us through any high and every low.
Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV)
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Author: Lea A. Strickland, MBA CMA CFM CBM GMC
Copyright ©2012 Lea A. Strickland
All Rights Reserved