by June Friesen
Recently I have been trying to practice this phrase – “Let go! Let God!” Believe me as I
tell you it is much easier to speak these words than to practice them. Many years ago I had
a sign that had these words on it. I tried to keep it in a prominent space where I would see
it as a reminder to me. Recently again I am trying to keep these words in mind as there
are things in my life that I want to get on with already – I am tired of waiting. Others
around me are tired of waiting. And I could think of many reasons why ‘I’ or others
should not have to wait. Yet it seems that God is holding up the ‘Wait’ sign.
Psalm 40
1-3 I waited and waited and waited for GOD. At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to GOD.
Have you ever felt like you could relate to the words in this psalm? Or maybe you are in
this space presently. As I am pondering and meditating on these words in this Lenten
season there are many people who were a part of that time in the Scriptures and even
those not mentioned that no doubt had many thoughts about the present events
happening.
The people of Israel had waited for a couple thousand years already for the Messiah to
come. However they had a very different idea about their Messiah than God did. As we
follow the three years of Jesus ministry as He tried to help the priests and teachers of the
Scriptures understand they just could not seem to understand. When he taught in the
synagogues they marveled at His knowledge of the Scriptures yet they were blind to who
he was. When he was doing miracles of all kinds they went so far as to attribute his works
to the devil. Their idea of the Messiah was someone who would come and overthrow the
Roman government and establish an Israelite nation where they as Israelites would be free
to live and worship God as they chose. But they chose to hang on to the past, hang on to
what they had been given long ago. New soil of opportunity, new fertilizer for
understanding and belief were not a part of their equation. They would instead not release
the old seed so that new seed could grow.
The dandelion plant goes through a full process of life in order to create as well as
embrace new life. First the seed awakens with sprouts to embrace a new plant. The plant
then grows and produces buds which in turn bloom into flowers. Then the flower and
plant have to be willing to embrace the bees as well as other insects who will find
nourishment as well as carry pollen from one plant to another. Then the flower will
produce a seed puff with many, many seeds. Again the dandelion will share – some of
these seeds will become food for birds and insects and the rest will become more plants for
the future. But it is all about ‘letting go.’
God had to practice the process of letting go as well. First of all God had to let go of Adam
and Eve in the garden after they disobeyed Him. It was not His perfect plan but it enabled
them to continue to reproduce humanity on the earth. The next most significant letting go
that God practiced was when He let go of His Son Jesus to be born as a human on this
earth. I am sure that God also practiced letting go quite frequently when it seemed as if
Jesus was in a tight spot yet the Father always provided a way of escape until His total
plan was ready to be fulfilled.
The final letting go of God was when He listened to the words of Jesus on the cross as the
suffering was almost overpowering – “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” The
pain was excruciating. The abandoned feeling was real. Yet……yet God the Father, in
order to accomplish His purpose had to let go and allow His Son to be alone as His human
death would accomplish victory over human death for all humankind. Yes Jesus death
that culminated in His resurrection was all about ‘God the Father letting go and letting
His Son die a physical human death so that humanity could once again have a relationship
with God’. It is not a relationship like it was in the Garden of Eden but when we follow
Christ we have the promise of one day living in the heavens with God – and I expect it will
have a garden even more beautiful that the garden of Eden. And so God calls to you and I
today: Let go and let Me be in charge.
MY PRAYER TODAY
God there are so many things that I want to control,
I want to be the one who says where I will live,
I want to be the one who says what I should do,
I want to be the one who even gets to tell others what to do,
I want to be the one.
God, help me to let go –
Help me let go of ‘me’ first –
Help me to be who You have planned for me to be –
Help me let go of ‘people’ around me –
Help me allow others to be who You plan for them to be –
Help me to embrace Your presence and guidance in my life –
Help me to embrace Your presence and guidance in the lives of others
Especially when it does not seem to be in line with my thoughts –
Help me to consider how it was for Your Son when even knowing the plan before He came
to this earth –
He chose to come, He lived on this earth willingly even when enduring ridicule, unjust
accusations and finally was seemingly wrongfully crucified (from a human view) –
Yet it was in and through that ‘so-called wrongful death’
That humanity is now able to know the fullness of Your love –
Because death was not victorious over Your Son –
Because Your ultimate Power breathed life back into that lifeless body
And crushed the power of satan once and for all.
Help me O God to ‘let go’ of things in my life that need to die,
Help me to know that as they die You O God will bring new things to life within me,
Help me then to know when and how to embrace this new life,
The new beginning(s) –
And may I too embrace resurrected energy and life filled with the Spirit’s presence here in
this world.
Photos by June Friesen. Scriptures from The Message translation.