Holding on and Letting Go, Part Two

While we were on vacation this summer, I found myself standing in the closet of every woman’s dreams.  Shelves of shoes and purses.  And drawers full of jewelry.  The owner of this fabulous closet was showing us the shopping bags she brought in while there were fires burning near her house. 

The idea was that if the house was going to burn, she’d go into the closet and start shoving as much jewelry as possible into the shopping bags.  In the same thought she realized it’s too much!  Just let it burn.

When I got home to my own house, I started wondering what I would want to hold on to.  I honestly couldn’t think of much I would care about in my house except the pictures.  Everything else is old, broken or easily replaceable.

However, there are certainly other things in my life that I hold on to.  All this got me thinking that we often hold on to the things we should be letting go of and let go of the very things we should be holding on to.

I am embarrassed to admit how bad my judgment is on such matters.  I hold on to my rights, my opinions, my anger, my time, my money, my kids and my wants like they’re a life preserver.

Equally shocking, I easily let go of prayer, Bible study, commitments, faithfulness, forgiveness and fellowship as if they are of minimal importance.

It seems I have it all backwards.  The things that we need to hold on to are not going to make sense in this world.  It would be like being in the basement during a fire, throwing old potatoes in a shopping bag while letting the fine jewelry and dishes and art to the flames.

Just like we have to let go of the monkey bar to move to the next rung, we have to let go of the things this world values.  Are we holding on to the right things?

I’m not so sure.  I think I might have it all backwards.

“I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse”  Philip Yancey

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;  those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31