The Art of Letting Go

I have come to find that there are different circumstances that require "letting go". Sometimes it's things out of our control and life rips people and things right out of our clutch. I'm not gonna lie, I prefer it this way. It's easier to accept the fact that you had to lose something that's out of your control. For me personally, I just cope much easier when I know I didn't have a choice or control in the matter.

Another scenario is when we have to let go of something by choice. Maybe it's a person, a job, a relationship. Whatever it might be, when life doesn't make the decision for us, when we have to let go by choice, I'm not sure about you all but I. HATE. IT.

It is so hard for me, especially when there is good in it. Oh it is so hard WHEN GOOD IS INVOLVED.

I'll fight for good. I'll fight for good any day of the week, all day, everyday if I need to. Because when good peaks it's way into my life, I just want to love it. I want to breath life into it. I want to spend every waking hour building it up, helping it to grow to become something great.

But maybe, just maybe, holding onto something too long hurts it. Maybe holding onto it too tightly will cause it to suffocate. Holding on will debilitate it from becoming great. Maybe, we weren't meant to be the sole supply to make good into something great. And to put ourselves into a position, a place where we believe we can bring all the healing this person needs is not only a narcissistic characteristic we're feeding, but a road that will just lead us to a deeper and darker pit.

No one is being helped. No one is growing.


So sometimes we have to let go because letting go means you really care. Letting go means you are for that person ( or for yourself). It means you are in the corner, cheering for good, wanting great things for that person or yourself.

And sometimes, you find your having to do it for YOU. Sometimes, the biggest, most influential cheerleader you're missing in your corner is yourself.

Not letting go can be a selfish act. It's saying, " I need this, I can't survive without this."

I try really hard not to be selfish or self-centered. Lately, I've been on this road of trying to love myself and take care of myself better. It has been the hardest thing I have yet to do in my life. I'm a giver and server by nature, and it's something I love to do, but to take care, give, and serve myself has been an extremely troublesome task for me. I keep hearing myself say, "this is selfish, your going to
become self centered, self consumed." But then I hear another voice. The voice that constantly whispers into my ear "love your neighbor as yourself".

I think of this like an artist and their art work. If you ever go to an art show and look at a piece of art, you stop and look at each detail of the art. You look for meaning, details in it. If you were to stand there with the artist and tell the artist what you see and what you notice, you would bring them nothing but great pleasure and great joy in the fact that you GET their creation. You spent time, you appreciate the work done (even if you don't understand their full intention behind it) but if you stay long enough, the creator will tell you their heart behind their work. They'll reveal the intention of it and they'll go on to express their love for what they've created.

I can't help but think that we are the piece of art and God is the artist. We focus so much on what scripture says about living and helping other people that we forget that He wants us to love ourselves as well. Loving your neighbor as yourself is an equal task, one is not greater than the other.

I truly believe God wants us to take time and marvel over what he's created. He wants us to drink in who he created us to be for He has created us in his image. He loves us and he is pleased and satisfied in who he created us to be and who he's creating us to become.

He celebrates us. He celebrates us everyday and I can't help but think that he wants us to join him. He wants us to celebrate us too. We celebrate other people, why not take the time to do that for ourselves? To just take one moment, one millisecond of your day, and marvel over His creation, his creation being you. You'll find it being a form of worship to God. For I truly believe when we thank God for something or take time in our day to drink in, sit, and enjoy the things he's created, we are worshiping him and he DELIGHTS in that.

The art of letting go is a hard one to master, but it can be just the thing we need to truly love God, ourselves, and others.