grasping to let go..

the winds of change bluster once again. i am grasping to let go. i find my fingers fluctuating between fumbling to grasp firm the familiar and the release of relinquishment. as i gravitate back and forth, hands closed then open then closed again, i wonder if there is another choice. some sort of balance. experimenting with my hands i find it is hard to find a middle ground..my hand is either open or closed. anything in between makes my hand look, well, simply disfigured. but what if one hand is open and one hand is closed? this, this might work!

just go with me on this for a minute..let’s take it back to the playground. we won’t go as far as the sand box..rewind with me to the monkey bars. once you hoisted yourself up and were holding onto the first bar, you spent a little time there getting your grip on things..getting comfortable. but then didn’t want to just stand there hanging. you realized it was time for a change, time for you to move to the next bar. so what’d you do? with one hand you held your grip unto the old bar, the bar you were sure of, the bar you know you could trust to hold you up; opening wide the other hand you reached to the next bar and upon firmly grasping it you let go of the other. this pattern continued one by one until you had conquer each bar.
now, think of that monkey bar set as life. each bar representing a change, a step in the journey Home. you can’t stay in one place for long. when you find yourself having to release, you still have something, or should i say Someone to hold onto. and as you reach out in faith, the One who has faithfully upheld you in the past, is sure to be there waiting (if not reaching out to take hold of you) for you to grab hold of the things of the future. one hand open, one hand shut (BUT the question then becomes what is your grip on?)



do you want to live your life feeling like you just got beat up by the playground bully? if we hold onto our lives, if we try to grip things of this world so tightly, that’s exactly how we’ll live life: beaten and worn. things of this world..they are not secure. they are not safe. they are fleeting. they aren’t constant. they will fail us. we will fall. God gives and takes away, and well, NOTHING is ours anyway. so if our hands are grasped shut, either we’ll experience the excruciating pain of our hand being ripped open and something removed or we’ll miss out on the opportunity of receiving something better because our hand was not open..

swinging to the next bar, hand open, hand closed, hand opened, hand closed I go..enjoying the adventure..holding firm to the One Thing that remains amidst change; the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever; the One Who holds secure when all else is shaking; the One Who never lets go; the One Who never fails, Whose love never fails. while simultaneously opening up the other hand..letting go of the past (as He loosens my grasp on the things i am not ready to let go of) and reaching for the Hope and the future that lie ahead; relinquishing control; pressing on to take hold of what Christ Jesus has already taken hold of for me..

"if you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it." -luke 17:33

i cling not to my life, but the Giver of Life, as i rest secure in His grasp.