the art of letting go

Wow! Pastor Sheryl delivered an amazing challenge Sunday, didn't she? I have to admit...I don't do a very good job of letting go. I tend to hold on--to responsibilities, to situations, to people/things that I'm frustrated with. Why? I don't know. Maybe I'm a control freak! Letting go really is an art, though. It's not just something that you wake up one day and decide you're going to do and "BAM" it's taken care of for life. No, it just doesn't work that easily. An art is something that is cultivated, practiced, perfected over time. I have spent years learning the art of playing the piano and still have much room to grow...and I continue working on it. That's how we learn to let go, too--we cultivate it and practice it day after day after day. The great thing in all of this, though, is that we're talking about God and a relationship with God. The closer our relationship with him is, the better we know him, the better we understand his character, and the more we trust him with the very things we have trouble letting go of. So, if we have trouble letting go, the first thing we should ask ourselves is how deep is our relationship with God? What is the quality of that relationship? How well do we know him and understand his character? I would never, NEVER, let go of something valuable to me to someone I didn't know nor trust. Would you? Likely not. So, to practice the art of letting go, we must first cultivate the relationship with the One to whom we need to release it all to. Then, hopefully, letting go won't be so terribly difficult.