Let Go

We have these small, short, fragile things. They are damaged so easily, destroyed in the blink of an eye. They are crying out to be given away, but we hold on to them with all that we are.

These small, short, fragile things... they are our lives. Some are already half-spent, and some are just starting, but most likely none of them will outlast the century. One wrong step and we are broken. One decision, made in haste and desperation, and we are no more. One faulty machine, one missed check of our blind spot... you get the point.

These lives are only worth protecting when they are all we have, and for our lives to be all we have is a tragedy in and of itself. People reach the pinnacle of what these small, short, fragile things have to offer, and find nothing worthy of their efforts. We've conquered our habitats, but we've been living in cages. Something inside of us knows there is more.

So we are invited out of our cages, and told of great things that we can and must do with these uncaged lives. Everything inside of us tells us this is right. All that we are asked is to leave our cages behind, and be free...

...but this new world is big, and we've only heard stories of those who have traveled far from their cages. No one can understand why we would give up the awesome cages we've made for ourselves, for something so unsure. Soon we begin to look back, and we miss our cages, and eventually we venture back (we exchange the truth of God for a lie). Surely our cages weren't that horrible, and they were quite comfortable. We slip back into our cage, lock the door, and live safe and sheltered lives. Every once in a while, we venture away from our cage, but we reject and scoff at the idea of leaving our cages for good. Those who are telling us to leave our cages... they are simply crazy.

Still... there is something inside us that knows and longs for the freedom outside of our (now self-imposed) prisons. We try to ignore the voice inside of us, that piece of us that isn't satisfied with having the nicest cage, or a cage just like our friends' cages. We hold on so tightly to the bars of our prisons, fighting freedom tooth and nail...

We hold on so tightly, to so little. We celebrate the freedom we were offered, and reflect on our trips outside of our cages, and something inside of us won't keep quiet.

What is out there, beyond what we've always known…out there, where the only one we can trust is the one who offered us our freedom in the first place.

What is “Out There” is what we were made for.

"Out There" isn't a destination. It isn't a place we can go, or an hour we can "give", or anything else tangible and immediately achievable. “Out There” is a life given completely to Christ, guided completely by the Holy Spirit to heights and eternal significance that only the Blessed Creator could dream up. Jesus Christ is the one offering us freedom and purpose. Our souls cry out for the freedom of His salvation, and our spirits for His purpose and direction for our lives. We can try to ignore these cries, to stifle them with earthly success and a life of plenty, but those things are nothing more than temporary solutions to a permanent problem, band-aids on a bullet wound.

Normally, this sort of post ends in a question, to make you think. However, since this post is just as much to me as it is to you, I will disregard conventional wisdom and simply say this…

Give up this silly little life. Accept freedom. Accept purpose. Let God take your life and make it something amazing, something beautiful and new. It doesn’t matter how much of your life is already wasted (I say that because, no matter what you’ve done in your life, God could have done so much more), because God will take even those past mistakes and make them part of a new masterpiece. There is no point to staying in your cage if you have been given freedom. There is no point in rejecting freedom when it is offered.

Let go.