Learning to Let Go: Part I

For the last year, my life has been a series of events of letting go. As I add up all that has led me to today, I am amazed that I literally have not left the room kicking and screaming.

I retired after thirty years of teaching. My younger son moved back home with his dog and then said “goodbye” when he got married sixth months later. My dad moved to assisted living and ended up in the hospital a week later with pneumonia. He bounced back from that and two months later broke his hip. His journey in rehab and therapy still continues. My older son is getting married in September. Finally, my younger son and wife are moving farther away and will be traveling half of the year. Whew! Life events such as the ones I listed, began my pondering of “what is letting go?”

The best definition I can come up with for “letting go” is when a piece of you that you have always depended on breaks away to stand on its own. Life as you know it looks different and has changed for good or bad. The familiar needs to be re-created because nothing has changed but everything has changed.

My gut reaction to letting go is a little kicking and screaming. Why me? Why now? I don’t want things to change. HELP!!! After the initial rant wears off, I know that letting go is part of God’s amazing story for me and it will be good. It’s not for the faint of heart and it requires brave steps as well as a loosening of the tight, knuckle grip I keep on my life.

As my journey of letting go continues, I am learning that life is a series of moments of letting go. It begins as a child, continues into adolescence and makes its way through adulthood. What looked to me like a rather new occurrence in my life is instead an ongoing journey of embracing the new, accepting change and leaning into God every step of the way.

Letting go is an ongoing journey of embracing the new, accepting the change and leaning into God.”

We can look at this journey as a blessing and part of the story God created for us. We can embrace the new without kicking and screaming (or maybe just a little bit ). Life can move forward into the newness God entrusts us with or we can put on the brakes because we think we know better. The choice is always ours to make, but the outcome is God’s beautiful gift to us when we choose to step out into faith.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11)

Holding on tight as I learn to let go in faith!

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