Remember to Let Go

Do you ever struggle to let go? Race into a situation, take control, and refuse to give it up? Yeah, me too. I hope you take this post as your reminder: Remember to let go.

Meet Buster

Buster, our family dog, was stubborn as all get-out. He was a small German Munsterlander, a pointer-retriever. My husband worked for hours to train him. The biggest challenge was to tame his natural instinct to bust out birds. He was fulfilling his name, after all. And he was fulfilling his purpose, to sniff out and point. But all he really wanted to do was to charge like a bulldozer at the quail family hidden under a tree. Buster didn’t care that the birds panicked and flew wildly in all directions to escape. He’d pant and get that smile on his face as if to say, “Did good, huh?”

Uh. No.

Then came the bright orange training dummy. Whenever we played fetch with Buster, we used the plastic dummy. It was important that the kids and I played the same way he was being trained so he learned from the repetition.

We practiced five simple commands. Sit. Stay. Fetch. Come. Release.

Buster learned the first four commands fast. Well, maybe not that fast. We put our hand gently on his head to remind him to be still. Once we said “fetch” or “okay,” he tore into the yard to find the dummy and return it.

But that last command? It was nearly impossible to teach him. Release.

He tightened his jaw, clamped down on the dummy and refused to let us have it. If we tried to tug on it, he bit down even harder and shook his head. It became a game to him. It’s almost like he was saying, “Hey, I worked hard to get this. It’s mine. You can’t have it.”

It took hours of work and hundreds of treats and “good boys” to get this through his thick skull. He gradually learned not to bite the dummy so powerfully. To hold it lightly. It was a beautiful thing when he obeyed.

Release.

He opened his mouth and dropped it. Yes, it was a slobbery mess, but he let it go.

Oh yeah. That’s me.

Remember to Let Go

My natural instinct is just like Buster’s. Race into the situation head-strong, take control, grab The Whatever and make it a slobbery mess — my next writing project, health challenge, financial stress. I don’t sit; I don’t stay; I don’t find my way to God’s Word or to my knees. God calls me to come. I resist, and I run around in circles. I tighten my grip on The Whatevers and refuse to let them go. And I certainly don’t hold them gently. They are mine. I can handle this. I don’t want to let go.

Sigh.

Then I’m in church and hear a spot-on sermon. Or a friend speaks wisdom: “Remember to let go.” Or I read today’s devotion where I hear my Lord. Release, my child. Let it go.

He reminds me of His love, His presence, His grace.

I fall to my knees and drop my slobbery mess at the foot of the cross.

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Romans 7:6-7 ESV

The following post was prompted by the word RELEASE at Five Minute Friday link-up where Christian writers encourage each other and share their free-writing weekly. It is a privilege to be part of this community. Looking for more devotions and reflections on faith? Click here.

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash