I’ve been doing a lot of letting go these past few weeks. I started cleaning our garage, and sorting out the stuff that never gets used anymore. Old baseball gloves that our kids outgrew. Bicycles that haven’t been ridden since the pandemic. Great things. They were used and loved for a season, but that season is gone.
Last week we sent two of our kids back to college. We loaded and packed cars. Prepared favorite foods. And we asked them ten times if they remembered to pack all their charging cords. We had a great family summer together. Fishing at the beach and roadtripping to Cincinnati. Great memories! But it’s time for everyone to start a new chapter.
Yesterday I visited my Dad. We sat outside in the shade and just enjoyed the silence and being together. He’s slowly letting go of his memory. We’re all slowly letting go of a lot of things.
God asked Abraham if he was willing to let go of the thing he loved most - his son, Isaac. We all have to let go of everything eventually. Our loved ones. Even our own life.
Whatever we cling to, God will ask us to give to Him. “Do you love Me more than these?” The question Jesus asked Peter in John 21:15. And it’s a question we all should ask ourselves. Is there anything I love more than I love God? Am I clinging to something that I don’t want to let go of?
In the end, everything will be taken away. Loved ones will die. Our health will fail. We will close our eyes and depart this world taking nothing with us. But if we let go of it now, if we hand it all over to God while we’re still alive, the way Abraham did, the way Peter did, then our lives become a living sacrifice to God. We become the kind of fearless men God uses to change the world. Men who have let go of EVERYTHING for the sake of God.
Whatever it is you’re struggling with today…health, marriage, finances, work, kids, parents - put it on the altar to God. Let it go.