Letting Go
Throughout our lives, we will encounter people and experiences that will help mold us into the person we are today and are supposed to be. These people and experiences can either hinder you or bolster you to the destiny God desires for your life. Although God does send/allow these people or experiences to enter your life, he has also allowed us to freely choose what we will do with them. When you hang on to certain things or individuals that are holding you back, it hinders God's plan for your life and will prolong a season of hardship. But sometimes these things are either hard to give up or hard to spot in our lives.
As I have in many other posts, I'll revert to baseball as my example. If you have read my previous posts, you would know that baseball was my first love, pride, joy, purpose, and meaning; simply put, it was my life. Although it had many benefits and has helped shape who I am today, I realize now that I held onto it too long. God sent that beautiful thing into my life to teach me discipline, perseverance, work ethic, teamwork, and many other great qualities. The issue was I began to idolize it.
In your life, you have many spheres, and within these spheres would be people and things that you love that gives you a sense of purpose. But at the center of these spheres should be one big one, and that sphere is God. All the other things should be feeding into that sphere and strengthening your connection with Him. Although baseball was that for me at a time, baseball began to take center stage as I got older. Baseball no longer fed into God, but God fed into baseball. When you allow something of this earth to be at the center of your life, you will find that hardships become much more challenging. You can't turn towards something imperfect to help solve an issue that came from imperfect. You need someone blissfully and beautifully perfect to help solve an issue from a flawed source. After years of fighting God, I finally had to give it up. Man, did it hurt, but I see now the benefit giving it up has had. God has shown me his merciful love more than ever these last few weeks/months. He's opened my eyes to the glory of our world, the beauty in life, and, most importantly, the beauty in Him.
Things are one thing; giving up people is a whole other battle. When you become deeply attached to someone, it may feel like your life can't continue without them. You begin to idolize and fantasize a version of this person that you know is false. When you trust in a person more than God, you are almost certainly going to be betrayed. They are imperfect; they are going to screw up. Why trust something imperfect when you can trust the perfect? I'm not saying don't trust people, but the person you should go to and trust the most in your life should be God. All God desires for your life is for you to fulfill His destiny, and that destiny is the one thing that will make you the happiest. Then along the way He will put people in your life the he knows will hurt you least and is the best for you. But he won't force his will upon you; God is such an amazing God that he decided to give us the ability to choose freely. Although we may be wrong 1000% of the time, he understands we are stubborn and we need to screw up to learn, it’s the only way our eyes will be truly open.
When you trust somebody more than God, it may be time to re-evaluate that relationship. Maybe it's not letting go of them, but sometimes it is. Sometimes they hinder you; sometimes, they were just meant to be there for a little while to show you some things then you both were meant to move on.
I view people and experiences that I have had to let go of like a rocket ship. When a rocket takes off, it has boosters, these boosters will get them to space, but once the ship gets there, they are released from the rocket. Those boosters could be specific people, things, or experiences in your life. They were meant to get you to a certain point, but when you got to that point, you had to let them go or they had to let you go so you could reach that higher place you were always meant to go. Even if this person seems to be good, and maybe they are, God has different plans for every one of us and it may require both of you to let go so you can each reach a higher place in your own lives. Every one of us has a specific purpose and destiny on this earth. We are all meant to reach higher. It's up to you if you choose to do the hard thing, like letting someone or something go that you deeply love. Although it may hurt in the moment, God will reward you for it in time.
I pray that you evaluate the "spheres" of your life. I pray that your eyes are opened to things or people that are holding you back. Lastly, I pray that you surrender to God and allow his will to be done in your life. It may hurt for a while as he prunes you, but when you blossom, you'll be beyond appreciative of those hard times that he allowed you to persevere through.
I hope you all have been finding happiness in your life. Wake up tomorrow and smile because you have an opportunity to make a better life for yourself. Smile that you get to be alive another day on this beautiful planet. You are worth it; you are loved.
Trevor Crowder
