{"id":1460,"date":"2022-03-09T08:41:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T13:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2022-03-09T08:41:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T13:41:27","slug":"letting-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/09\/letting-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Letting Go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago, a high-rise construction worker experienced the ultimate nightmare.
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He lost his balance.\u00a0 \u00a0
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He would have fallen except that he managed to wrap his fingers around an iron beam.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t have the strength or the leverage to pull himself back up.\u00a0
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He screamed for help.\u00a0 But it was a noisy worksite and everyone on his team was attending to something else.
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He hung there for a long stretch of minutes.\u00a0 Finally the strength in his hands gave out.\u00a0 In total despair he let go and fell \u2013 approximately eight feet to the scaffolding that he did not know was directly below him.
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Even though we\u2019ve always heard that spiritual surrender is simple \u2013 and that we will in fact survive the experience \u2013 most of us cultivate dark fantasies about what will happen if we actually let go and abandon ourselves to God.\u00a0
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Irish theologian Peter Rollins writes, \u201cThis is not something done by working ourselves up and trying to find the right way of thinking and acting, but rather in letting go and opening up to the transformative power of God.\u201d\u00a0 Letting go means releasing our hold on the fears, addictions, and prideful dreams that have long dominated our lives \u2013 or rather, allowing God to cripple the power that such forces have long exerted over us.\u00a0
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But to be honest, most of us aren\u2019t about to pursue that kind of transformation without a fight.
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The Christian life begins with an act of surrender.\u00a0 What ought to follow is a lifetime of surrender.\u00a0 North American churches have tended to major on the former while seriously underplaying the latter.
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The journey of following Jesus requires an initial act of radical trust.\u00a0 Having heard the good news, and being convicted of its validity, we are stopped in our tracks.\u00a0 We abandon the path we have been traveling and turn in the opposite direction.\u00a0 This is called repentance.\u00a0
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Counting not on what we think we have achieved through our most strenuous efforts at spiritual self-improvement, but relying humbly on the grace of God, we surrender.\u00a0 We wave the white flag.\u00a0 As best we can we place our minds, bodies, wills, and emotions in the service of Jesus, who makes good on his promise never to leave us by filling us with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0
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This simple act of self-surrender is so transforming that it is appropriately called \u201cconversion.\u201d \u00a0Essentially, we receive the first installment of a complete life makeover.\u00a0
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Way too many church leaders, unfortunately, have lent the impression that conversion means Game Over.\u00a0 There has been an astonishing lack of teaching that our initial act of surrender is also the doorway to surrender as a way of life.\u00a0\u00a0 With the Spirit\u2019s help, we are finally ready to address the fact that our thinking, our reflexes, and our choices \u2013 which have been habitually enmeshed with What Has Always Worked for Me \u2013 now need to be realigned with the priorities of our new Master.
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Because we believe that Jesus is eternally holding on to us, our response is to do everything we can, for the rest of our lives, to hold on to him.\u00a0 Discipleship begins with a moment of surrender.\u00a0 But it has to morph into surrender as a never-ending personal practice.
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How can we possibly do that?\u00a0
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It\u2019s the easiest thing in the world.\u00a0 You just let go and abandon yourself to God.
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But of course that\u2019s what makes it the hardest thing in the world.\u00a0 You must let go and abandon yourself to God.
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Here\u2019s how Jesus put it:\u00a0 We give up a life we cannot keep in order to gain a life we cannot lose.<\/em>
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Letting go may seem like the scariest of all options.\u00a0 The ultimate freefall nightmare.
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That\u2019s why it’s good to remember Deuteronomy 33:27: \u201cThe eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several years ago, a high-rise construction worker experienced the ultimate nightmare.\u00a0He lost his balance.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0He would have fallen except that he managed to wrap his fingers around an iron beam.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t have the strength or the leverage to pull himself back up.\u00a0\u00a0He screamed for help.\u00a0 But it was a noisy worksite and everyone on his team was attending… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[338],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-surrender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1462,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions\/1462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}