There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul. It is easy to make a mistake here, “If God gave it to me,” we say, “its mine. I can do what I want with it.” No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of – if we want to find our true selves, if we want real life, if our hearts are set on glory.
-Elisabeth Elliot
There has been a lot of learning & a whole lot of letting go to see something more beautiful still over these past several months.Who knew we would be here now. This quote by Elisabeth Elliot found me in the midst of trial and urged me to press on , press in, and put my hope in what was not seen yet. I found myself in a season where no matter how much teeth-gritting and white knuckled grip I wanted to muster up in myself could protect me from what had to be loosened and let go of. Only to see Jesus more clearly and to experience His mercy more deeply.
Even now it urges my soul to trust to my very bones that there is glory at stake and freedom in releasing my grip off of what I start to think is mine to hold & mine to keep. What beauty and life there is in relinquishing and loosing I am finding out. But I won’t pretend to know that I understand this fully. I’m sure in my lifetime this will take on many different forms and be painfully scary again at times. I have a feeling this is only the beautiful beginning and will continue on in the months to come to challenge me in ways I never knew on the world race.
