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Letting Go

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Letting go…
Release…
Forgiveness…

These three daily practices are the gateway to freedom, but when tried, they have been found to be too hard for too many.

In Galatians 5:1 Paul states: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” All of Christ’s work for people finds its apex in freedom. If this is true, then why are so many so stuck? We are stuck because we surrender to the wrong things.

We surrender to what other people want us to be and never become who we were created to be…

We surrender to the gods of materialism and debt cementing us in a place we don’t want to dwell…

We surrender to culture and become a copy of everyone else…

We surrender to someone else’s idea of success and spend our lives trying to gain what will never satisfy…

We surrender to the image police and never like ourselves…

Bob Dylan said it this way:

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

We all have a master, the question that needs to be asked is, “Is your master immersing you in freedom or bondage?”

Jesus came and freed those who would follow Him and live His kingdom life, but as Paul notes, we can choose, as a follower of Christ, to allow other things to take control. If you are a Christian and find yourself stuck, shackled, or drowning, then you have allowed something else besides Christ to be master.

When we sink into depression because someone speaks negatively about us, we have just given that person power and control.

When we live in so much debt that we are sinking in it, we have allowed Chase or whatever financial institution to become our master.

When we hold onto anger, bitterness or unforgiveness, we have allowed our hurt or another person to have control.

Jesus wants everyone to experience a life of freedom, joy, and abundance, and this kind of life can only be experienced when we live the way Christ told us to live.

There are three freedom killers that everyone needs to be aware of: Expectations, Attachments and Control.

The Bar is Too High

When we have expectations that are too high, no one and nothing can get over the bar. When people fail to meet our expectations, we tend to get angry, judgmental or even depressed. Grace is needed for the person who sets the bar too high or they will never enjoy the beauty of relationships with others or God, as people rarely meet all expectations. Let go of unrealistic expectations…Release the high bar… Forgive the person, and begin to taste the sweetness of freedom.

Stuck Like Duct Tape

We all love duct tape, but when we are so attached to our desires that we hold tenaciously with a death grip, we get stuck like duct tape, and that is really stuck! Holding so tightly to “stuff & things” places those things in the drivers seat, and the sovereignty of God moves into the back seat. When God is not where we are primarily tethered, we lose our freedom and we wonder where God went. He is still there waiting for you to let go of your attachment to things. When we trust God and believe He is good, we release our expectations and our attachment to things…then we regain our freedom. If I do not trust God or believe He is good, I will continue to hold on tightly to what I want or what I expect from others.

Remote Control

Everyone is a control freak to some extent, but some people allow have an excessive need to control and it destroys their lives and the freedom Christ died for. We try to control our spouse, our kids, our boss, our government, our bank, and even our friends. “If they would just do what I say, then everything would be great!” is the conscious or subconscious life commandment. The need to control is insidious and it destroys freedom. It’s yoke crushes all who give in to it. Even when we realize that we can’t control the world, we still live and act as if we can, and this ruptures relationships, our soul and our faith. God alone is sovereign, I am not. The sooner I release my need to control…the sooner I forgive the ones I want to control…and the sooner I let go of my need to control, the sooner I swim in the ocean of God’s freedom.

Open Hands

The image of open palms is the image of freedom.

Open palms hold things loosely…
Open palms release the tight fist of control…
Open palms reveal trust..

Clenched fists are the image of bondage…holding tightly, judging harshly, and missing grace.

Everything Jesus did was to set you free. In John 8:36 we read: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” The initial steps to regaining your freedom today is to choose in this moment to

Let Go of your impossible expectations…

Turn the control over to Christ…

Forgive yourself, your offenders and God…

Are you free?

Do you want to be free?

Then it’s time to unyoke from all the things that shackle you and trust God to unleash you into the life you were created for.

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Pry Me Off Dead Center: Loder

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This was a great way to start the day, another great poem from Guerrillas Of Grace: Prayers For The Battle

Pry Me Off Dead Center

O persistent God,
deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle.
Pressure me that I may grow more human,
not through the lessening of my struggles,
but through an expansion of them

that will undamn me
and unbury my gifts.

Deepen my hurt
until I learn to share it
and myself
openly,
and my needs honestly.

Sharpen my fears
until I name them
and release the power I have locked in them
and they in me.

Accentuate my confusion
until I shed those grandiose expectations
that divert me from the small, glad gifts
of the now and the here and the me.

Expose my shame wherever it shivers,
crouched behind the curtains of propriety,
until I can laugh at last
through my common frailties and failures,
laugh my way toward becoming whole.

Deliver me
from just going through the motions
and wasting everything I have
which is today,
a chance,
a choice,
my creativity
your call.

O persistent God,
let how much it all matters
pry me off dead center
so if I am moved inside
to tears

or sighs
or screams
or smiles
or dreams,
they will be real
and I will be in touch with who I am
and who you are
and who my sisters and brothers are.

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Getting Off Our “Buts”

You know it’s true…we all have them…and often they sabotage’ our life and keep us from doing what we need to do. This video is funny, true and motivating…enjoy!

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Change- SNQ 8/15/12

Change is inevitable. Change is necessary. Change is hard. As life speeds along at an ever increase rate, we are faced with the reality of change. How we handle change will greatly affect the level of enjoyment we have in life. Fighting the inevitable is always a losing battle, so why do we do it?

When you are facing a change or a transition, it is really important to consider the following:

1. Acknowledge the Change: Denial isn’t helpful when it comes to change, it actually creates a high level of conscious, as well as subconscious stress. When we acknowledge the change, we are freeing ourselves from the hostage situation that denial creates. Another form of denial is minimizing change. When we minimize the potential effects of change we are not really acknowledging that we will be facing life differently. When we finally acknowledge change, we bring it to the light where it can’t go underground and affect our subconscious behavioral patterns.

2. Celebrate What Came Before. Too often, since we don’t like change, we choose to simply “power through it” and jump into the next great thing. This leaves a sense of unsettled-ness within. When we celebrate the transition, we give honor to the good things as well as grieve the hard things that preceded the change. This creates a sense of closure concerning the change, whether it was good or bad, which in turn helps us move forward without the baggage that, denial, minimizing or too fast a transition create. Closure is crucial for a healthy transition.

3. Remind Yourself That Change Helps You Grow. If we never experienced change, we would never grow. Remind yourself that change creates growth opportunities and will reveal the health of your emotional soul. You’ll need to remind yourself often…so in those moments when the stress from change is reaching the tipping point, remind yourself that God is larger than your circumstances and that the change He is allowing can be used to enlarge your faith.

Here are some great quotes about change:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
~Reinhold Niebuhr

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.  ~Arnold Bennett

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.  ~Ellen Glasgow

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.  ~Carl Jung

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.  ~Maya Angelou

If you’re in a bad situation, don’t worry it’ll change. If you’re in a good situation, don’t worry it’ll change.  ~John A. Simone, Sr.

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.  ~Confucius

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.  ~Confucius

Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it.  ~Harry Emerson Fosdick

Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.  ~Frank Herbert

Change is the only constant. Hanging on is the only sin.  ~Denise McCluggage

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.  ~Andre Gide

In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.  ~Warren Buffett

Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, hungry before you, frightened before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, raped before you… yet, someone survived… You can do anything you choose to do.
~Maya Angelo

By changing nothing, nothing changes.  ~Tony Robbins

Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.  ~Walter Anderson

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.  ~Jim Rohn

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.  ~George Bernard Shaw

You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.  ~A.A. Milne

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

20 years from now you will be disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the one’s you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  ~Mark Twain