Letting Go

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. (Luke 9:24 NIV)

I love the spiritual paradoxes that Jesus teaches throughout the gospels.  But this one from the verse above is one of the greatest.  "If you try too hard to keep that which is precious to you, you will lose it;  if you really want to keep it, give it away."  Or "You can't have what you cannot let go of, but you may keep that which you can."

I think the thing about it is, when we hold on too tightly to anything... treasure, loved ones, our own lives... we cease to possess them because they have actually come to possess us.  Just look at our lives these days.  We are so afraid of losing what we have that we have become a nation that lives in fear of losing it all.  We live behind locked doors with fancy security systems with guns under our pillows.  We keep pepper spray on our key chains.  We are afraid to enjoy a walk by ourselves or stop to ask someone who appears stranded if they need any help.

We have become possessed by our possession and by our tight hold on our own lives and the lives of those we love.  We lack the freedom that Jesus wants for us.  No, we shouldn't become careless.  We need to be concerned for our safety and we should take reasonable measures to protect our possessions.  But it should not rule our lives.  It should not overrule our compassion.  It should not stop us from living life.

In Pastor Chad's sermon yesterday we learned how not to be an "I want to follow Jesus, but..." Christian.  This giving up what we so desperately try to hold on to is a huge step in getting rid of all the "buts" in our lives.  And it is much easier to let go of these things when we finally realize that none of it is really ours anyway.

Father,
Help us to understand, deep down in our souls, that we don't really own anything or anyone.  It can all be gone in an instant no matter how hard we try to hold on.  Help us to release our grasp so that we can really enjoy all that you have blessed us with.  Amen.