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article is written by the author itself and not by me, I am not trying to
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PAGE
TITLE:
CBN Daily Devotional
ARTICLE
TITLE:
Pry Those Clinging Fingers
DATE: N.A
AUTHOR: Peter Lundell
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: With
a pastor’s heart, Peter Lundell
connects people and their life issues to a real God so they can live well in
the face of eternal realities. With a quarter century of missionary, pastoral,
and teaching experience, he brings new perspectives to interacting with God
that most people overlook. He holds an M.Div. and D.Miss. from Fuller Theological
Seminary and resides in Southern California. He authors books on Christian
spirituality. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com.
I
moved my mother to a new, downsized apartment. Like most of us, her money is
tight. At times the process involved careful sorting and packing; other times
demanded chucking things in boxes or in the trash. At the end of the move, the
walls were bare and wounded with nail holes and plastic drywall anchors; the
carpet lay lined and pocked with impressions of once-arranged furniture; and
the windows stood stark and vacant against the sunlight. The furniture and
decorations that once made it home were gone, leaving only an empty shell.
Throughout
our lives we may go through some phases with great care and others with wild
abandon. And at each phase of life, we will leave the previous one behind—like
a place that was once home but is now gone, like an empty apartment.
At
death we may leave behind money and furniture, but the life we lived—the space
we took up on this earth, the "us" that people knew—will be gone,
empty as a moved-out-house.
No
matter how sentimental, or wounded, we may be about the past, we must leave it
as we enter a new phase of life. A wise person will cling to nothing, and live
according to what's ahead. In a way we all know this, and my talking about it
is clicheish. But humans have an innate tendency to cling. We fill our closets
and garages with stuff we’ll never use again. We hold on to nostalgic versions
of memories and edit out the unhappy parts. We want life to keep going the way
we like it.
But
we can’t do that forever.
Jesus
tells a parable of a guy who was a lot more similar to many of us than we’d
like to admit. The story goes like this:
“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought
to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he
said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones,
and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You
have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink
and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will
be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not
rich toward God” (Luke
12:16-21 NIV).
If
we cling to our stuff, we’ll only get into trouble—both in this life and the
afterlife.
Not
clinging takes unending attention. None of these come easily: not clinging to
old toys and the piles of stuff that too often defined who we were; not
clinging to comfort zones, hurt emotions, and the way things used to be.
Like
a rented apartment, our lives may seem like our own, but ultimately they are
not. We live and breathe in the hands of God, who created us. When our life's
lease is up, all we leave behind will be emptied of us.
The
Apostle Paul similarly calls believers to let go of our stuff. The more we let
go of here, the more we can expect to receive in the place God has prepared.
Here is the amazing promise:
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God
has prepared for those who love him”
(1
Corinthians 2:9 NIV).
“Lord,
pry my fingers off every object or feeling that you want me to let go. I chose
to live untethered and free. Lead me by your Spirit…”
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