Nothing moves faster than a toddler with something he’s not supposed to have. It’s really amazing. The same child that took 25 minutes to walk from the house to the car as they stopped to look at every. single. rock. suddenly develops superhuman speed.
Can we also talk about how their little fingers morph into vice grips? Another phenomenon.
And the strength of will! Determined to hold onto their treasure no matter what. It could be a bug, it could be a Starbucks candy wrapper, but they are not letting go, no matter how we try to be the voice of reason. Even if it could hurt them. Even if the person they trust most is saying let go. At this point they use every toddler’s favorite two words.
“NO! MINE!”
Is it too early to declare nap time?
How often are we like toddlers, our figurative fingers in a vice grip, holding onto things, people, careers – even if they are harmful to us, even if those we trust most are pleading with us to let go.
A few years ago, I taught a Sunday School class about the idols in our lives. In class, the high schoolers were ready to trust God and let go of their idols. But during the week I watched as they held onto volatile relationships, as they chased after perfect grades, and found their worth in the approval of others.
I was frustrated with them until I looked at my own life. It’s hard to let go. Really hard.
In fact, it’s impossible to let go when we are in survival mode, and that is where many of us are. We won’t let go when we feel like this one thing is keeping us afloat in the chaos. We won’t let go when that feels like it will be a total free fall.
And that is scary. Not roller coaster scary, because there we have bars to hold onto and we know that ride will eventually end. I’m talking real-life scary. Scary in a “I don’t know what will happen” way.
But what if it only seems scary?
The enemy of our soul keeps us in the dark, telling us that if we let go of this one thing, we will be alone in the dark, abandoned, hopeless, lost forever. He paints the picture of a yawning abyss waiting to swallow us up. He wants to keep us trapped in the dark.
Truth is like turning on lights in the darkness and discovering that the yawning abyss isn’t even real. Truth sets us on the path to life, light, and freedom.
Unfurling our fingers and letting go is a progression. We won’t let go of that one thing until we are convinced that God will take care of us better than that one thing ever could. We won’t be convinced of that until we trust Him. And we won’t trust Him until we know Him. We can’t know Him without spending time in His Word. And His Word is where the solid ground is.
God leans toward us through His Word. In Psalm 55:22, He says cast your burden on me, and I will sustain you.
Ready for rock solid truth?
The word for cast in this verse is to throw, to fling, to hurl. In other words, to get it as far away as fast as possible.
And where are we hurling our burden, our cares? The word God uses in this verse is Yahweh, His personal name.
The personal request of handing over our burdens is made by our personal God. The God who created everything, who keeps planets spinning and molecules together, but who is also so personal that He asks us to hand over our burdens to Him.
When we throw that one thing to Him, our hand is then empty. But there’s no free fall, because in the same breath God promises to give us what we need.
How does He know what we need? Because He knows us.
Psalm 56:8 says He catches our tears. Our tears don’t run down our cheeks and disappear. The idea is that He collects them and intervenes on our behalf. He sees. He cares. He acts.
See the beautiful progression? He cares for us and will give us what we truly need for our mind, body and soul. He bends toward us. He hears our sobs, He feels our pain, He catches our tears, and He draws us in toward Himself.
The enemy wants us to believe that we are alone, abandoned, hopeless. But we are none of those things. Jesus has come to be with us, so we are never alone. He walks beside us, so we are not abandoned. He is our hope, so we are never without hope.
Now that our hands are empty, we can hold tightly onto Him and stand on solid ground.
If you enjoyed this post, you’ll find more examples of connecting with Christ in your everyday life in my devotional.
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