The Love of Letting Go

What is love? This question has been answered thousands of times and in millions of different ways since the beginning of time. As Christians, we know that "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."-1st John 3:16

As I ponder this verse, I can't help but take it a step further. Yes, we are called to lay down our lives for our brothers, but what does this mean? In the verse quoted above, it is indicating that we are to lay our physical lives down; be willing to die for our brothers and sisters in Christ. But in this post, I would like to look at this verse in a slightly different angle in an effort to shed light on the concept of letting go in love.

When we let go of something, we lose our grip. When we lose our grip, we lose control. Here's the truth friend: no matter how tight we hang on, how big the burden for somebody or how large the fear may be, God will have His way. In some odd way, I view that as being similar to dying for somebody because we love them. We die to ourselves; our fears of how it's going to change our relationship with them, abandonment, or the danger, pain or harm that they may be in. We do this so that God can work out in them what He needs to in order to complete His plan for their lives. 

It is natural to want to rescue a loved one from a burning building, but what if that burning building was God's intervention in their lives? What if allowing them to get burned, to experience pain and desperation, was Gods plan all along? Why do we as humans limit God's interventions in our lives to "miracles" and things that fall under the "warm and fuzzy" category? My God is warm and fuzzy, but He is also mysterious, powerful and so far above my understanding. "For as the heavens are higher then the earth, so are my ways higher then your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."-Isaiah 55:9.

May God grant you the peace and serenity to let a loved one go. May you be able to trust, see and understand what He would have you to be during that time. May your love for Christ and the faithfulness of who He is loosen your grip while in turn tightening your dependency on Him.