This is a guest blog written by my mom who is in the states. Thanks ma for writing this. Love ya!
Let Go and Let GOD is such a cliche!
Or is it? I always thought it was such a weird expression…let God what? Here God, I’m letting go of this pickle jar, I’ll let you open it for me. Here God, I will allow you to bless me with a new car. Here God, I’ll allow you to straighten my kids out, after all You made them. It always smacked of irony as if the expression implied we gave God, the creator of the Universe, permission to do anything in our lives. As if we are Kings and Queens sitting on high thrones granting noble entreaties with a flick of our wrists to the peasants, or in this case, God. It felt like a smear on God’s holy name, and something I couldn’t wrap my brain around as a new Christian many years ago. As it would be revealed to me, it’s so much more than that.
A dear sister in Christ once explained it in a practical way. When we try to do everything under our own power, we deny that God even exists and we are effectively pushing God out of our lives. Like a toddler who is trying to tie their own shoes and adamantly decrying, “I do it, Mommy/Daddy!”, well we know it isn’t always going to end well, right? Like the toddler, when we struggle with big things in our lives, our first instinct is to try to control the situation. The juvenile “I do it!” morphs into “Must. Control. Everything.”. We run scenarios in our heads, and do everything within our power to prevent the worst outcomes. Oftentimes, we fall into despair when nothing goes our way. It’s an exhausting way to live…ask me how I know!
When Madison first told me of wanting to join The World Race Gap Year, we were living overseas and she had just nixed the idea of going to college back in the States because she would be too far from us, and totally out of her comfort zone. Like the Millenium Falcon jumping into hyperdrive, her very next thought then became “I want to join the Gap Year and travel to all the countries to serve God and be even further away from Mom and Dad”. What!? My heart stopped, and I immediately started looping the “What if?” playlist in my head, and grasping for control of the situation. After all, isn’t that our job as parents? We are entrusted with literally controlling their everything from the day they are born. I realized very quickly that her well-being would be completely out of my control for the first time in her life and I was not comfortable with it. While she was hyperdriving, I was hyperventilating.
However, I knew from experience that when my emotions get in the way, I am not seeking God’s word on the matter, so into the Word I went. Matthew 6:33-34 says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” And Philippians 4:6 “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” As I meditated on what these meant, that peace did come over me, and I did slowly LET GO of my own control, AND LET GOD back in to help guide us. It’s not something that comes easy for me, and it is something I have to be vigilant about, but it helps to know God has the finances, her health, her travel safety, sadness over being separated on holidays, and everything else in His control! After all, she is His child first, and His love far surpasses any love I can humanly give her.
