There’s a popular meme on social media that says the trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let things go. While this is true in my front yard, it is more challenging in the heart. I am not particularly good at letting go.
Jesus addresses letting go, telling the disciples not to be afraid to give up their very lives. Matthew 16:25 quotes Jesus as saying: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” The same concept is echoed in Mark 8:25, Luke 17:33 and John 12:25. The Johannine version adds a verse about a grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying so that it can bear much fruit, another lesson from nature.
We let something go so that something else can be born. We un-clench our fists so that there’s room in our open hands.
This message was excerpted from “Letting go” by Lisa A. Smith in the September/October 2021 Gather magazine.
Continue to pray for attendees, presenters, worship leaders, staff, and crew gathered in Phoenix for the Just Love Gathering. Today we especially pray for the 5K Run, Walk and Roll whose proceeds benefit the health initiative of Women of the ELCA, Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls. You can donate to the health initiative.
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