Let Go.

"A refusal to let go is a refusal to live free."


I remember being a little boy playing on the swings during recess- competing with all of the other kids to see how high we could swing- and of course it wasn't enough to just swing then it was who could jump out of the swing in the coolest way. I remember the thrill of swinging through the air getting higher and higher... and then the realization the ground is hard- and if I hit it- it may break me down. So there came the tension. The silent debate whether or not to let go of the swing and hurl myself across the sky or play it safe- slow down the momentum and get off the swing like a normal (sane) individual. Panic and excitement begin to set in. Decisions.

Lately, I've been thinking about how we go about living our lives and why we never seem to live up to our potential. It always seems that there's something holding us back, and whether you'd like to admit it or not we all have stuff that just trips us up- but the stuff that WE can control- that we voluntarily keep around in our life... we sabotage ourselves because we refuse to let it go. Lately one of the scriptures that keep popping up everywhere in my life is Proverbs 4:23 "Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life." Most of the time we see the word "keep" and think of "guarding things out...keeping things in"  But if what we've got in our hearts isn't good- we shouldn't be keeping it. We should let it go. But let go of what? 

Pride.
Ego.  - we're not God's gift to earth. 
Plans. - we forget that we don't always knows what's best for us.
Hate. 
Bitterness- if you bring it up- even for reference purposes- you're probably not over it. 
Inattention. 
Failure. 
Fear. 
Hurt. 
Past successes. 
Insecurities. 
Depression. 
Cynicism. 
Skepticism. 
Unforgiveness. 
Memories. 
Words. 
It's not easy. Not at all


Back to the swingset... So the choice was mine. Stay put or let go.  I could have let the fear. the skepticism. the failure of past attempts keep me from experiencing the excitement and thrill of freedom or I could have decided to jump. So many times in our lives- we keep ourselves in the swing set- afraid of what it may look like if we decide to let go of our hate, our memories, our skepticism, those words, our hurts. We're afraid that the ground is hard- and if we hit it- it will break us down. So in reality we're 100% depending on our abilities- not God's. We're depending on faith in ourselves- not faith in God. Why? Because we have to let go? Without letting go- we don't ever get to fill the exhilaration of jumping...