Letting Go
"We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
-Joseph Campbell
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about ending 2015 on a high note. The high note was about taking the remaining days of this year, setting some clear intentions and making significant achievements in the area of your God-inspired dreams.
Today’s post is a follow- up. A check in to see how you are doing and where you are on your Dream Makers path.
For me, I must admit I have been challenged by life since I wrote that post. Some hard, difficult and unexpected things have hit like a mighty force and have shaken me, in ways that tempted to derail me from the intentions I set for the remainder of 2015; to end on a high note.
In this midst of it all, I have come to recognize that certain things in my life have become blocks; obstacles in the way of me getting to where I want to go. I also have to come to recognize that I need to let some things go, in order to move forward.
Letting go is necessary.
Letting go frees you.
Letting go is part of growth.
Letting go is hard.
Sometimes we have to let go of people in our lives.
Sometimes we have to let go of old ideas and ways of thinking.
Sometimes we have to let go of old dreams as God wants to give us a new dream.
Sometimes we have to let go of material goods that no longer serve a purpose; instead just takes us space in our homes and in our lives.
Sometimes we have to let go of the negative ways in which we see ourselves.
Sometimes we have to let go of wanting to be in control.
Sometimes we have to let go of bitterness, grudges, and resentments.
I started the letting go process by cleaning my closet, throwing away and donating items that no longer served me or my life. I donated items to local Goodwill with the intention of these things being a blessing to someone else. Cleaning out my closet way symbolic of me letting go of things that no longer had a place in my life. Things I was holding onto for reasons unknown. When I finished the closet there was a sense of feeling lighter. I had begun to clear a path for new blessings to come in.
The next thing happened in church (which was unexpected). I had been dealing with some issues around my self-confidence, so when I arrived at church on Sunday the pastor’s sermon was on letting go of the labels others place on you and sometimes you place on yourself. (Every time I go to church I always feel like the pastor has been looking into my life and crafting sermons just for me.) This sermon was just what I needed.
When we came into service, everyone was given a plain, white label. We were not given any other instructions other than to hold onto it until the end of service. At the end of the sermon, the pastor asked us to write a label that we wanted to let go of, that no longer served us and was in contrast to who God said we were. Mine immediately came to mind. It’s the one I had been struggling with. So I wrote it on the label and stuck it back onto my shirt. He then asked those who wanted to let go of that label, to come to the front of the church and to place the label on the makeshift cross in a symbolic gesture of giving it to God.
Now once he said that I hesitated because even though no one knew what I had written on my label, walking up to the front of the church was confirmation that I had something I needed to let go of. It was an acknowledgment of my brokenness to hundreds of people. But part of letting go is learning to stand in our own truth, no matter how ugly or messy it may be.
So I went up to the cross and I gave it to God.
I am glad I went because I believe that in order to get to where God wants me to go, I had to "nail" to the cross these ideas about myself that were in the way of my purpose and my dreams.
Letting go is an ongoing process. It is not something we can do one time and think we are done. No, we are constantly being called to look at and take an honest assessment of our lives. For me my letting go is a process that sometimes needs to happen on a daily basis, sometimes several times in one day, sometimes minute by minute. But no matter how often we need to let go, no matter how many things we need to let go of, every time we move in the direction of surrendering those things, we allow more room for God to do what he needs to do in our lives.
Now sometimes, God removes things himself. God has been removing things from my life for the past two years. Most of them I was okay with, but others I was not. But I see there are some things that he wants me to let go of for myself. Because when I do I strengthen my faith and relationship with him.
What about you? What labels do you need to let go of and give to God? What do you need to let go of that is blocking you from living your God inspired dreams? Send me an email, I would love to hear from you.
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