FISH: Letting go: Really a matter of trusting the Father?

The only thing harder than hanging on is letting go. We have to let our children go, let our worry go, let relationships go, let dreams go. It’s a part of life. But why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to accept letting go as a shift into a new season?

It’s easy to spot someone else hanging on too long; it looks so awkward! The longer they keep it up, the worse it gets. The adult that wants to dress and act like a teenager draws attention to him/herself. The one that refuses to believe that a relationship is over yet keeps looking for ways to keep a hook in the other person becomes pitiful after a while. The parent that won’t let their child go is stifling. The child that won’t let the parent go is draining. The worker that won’t give up their position or the project can shut down the effectiveness of the whole department. If that person is in leadership, it can affect the whole organization.

We have a natural tendency to want to create a “nest.” We want to build a home and a life with things in it that we enjoy, things we have worked to have. That nest includes both people and things such as your career and lifestyle. These are not bad, but there come times in life when we have to let go of the way it’s been to allow the future in. You can’t hold them both in your hand at the same time.

When circumstances dictate that things can no longer be the way we’ve known them to be, elements may surface that we didn’t even know were in us. Fear, insecurity, disorientation, and maybe even anger arise. Our first instinct is to hold on tighter to what we feel being pulled away. Doing so may show us to what degree our identity and self worth are derived from the nest we’ve created. There’s safety there. We’re known there. We’re valued there. Changes come and threaten the comfort zone. In these places we find out how much we really trust God the Father and how much security we have been drawing from the nest we’ve built. It reveals how far off the mark we really are.

It is easy to admit we don’t like change. That’s an acceptable answer. But how many would admit that what they really don’t like are circumstances that take away who they think they are? We say we trust God, that we trust that He is our Provider and Protector, and that He has our best in mind, but when our surroundings change, we find out how little we have really been trusting in Him all along.

Psalm 20:7 says, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

Psalm 37:5-6 says, “Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”

If you’re having trouble letting go of something in your life, check and see if you are looking too much at yourself and not enough on Father God. As our vision of ourselves lines up with how He sees us as His sons and daughters, our desires and expectations of life will change. We will trust Him as the Father who loves us and wants us to understand we are so much more than the nests we have feathered and lined.

>> Fish is the outreach coordinator for the West Odessa Community Church.