How To Let Go And Embrace A Transition

Today is a beautiful autumn day. The weather is a little warm for my liking, but the wind is blowing, signaling change — a new season is coming, and that makes my heart giddy. What is it about change and newness that feels so good? The hope, the anticipation, the letting go — I love it all.

I love it, that is, if the change is something I desire. If not, well then, you may be prying the comfortable and familiar from the death grip of my hot little hands. At that point, change ceases to feel hopeful, and instead just feels like transition that — let’s be honest — can feel like smacking headfirst into a brick wall.

When I hear of someone going through such a time, my first thought is to extend condolences. Seriously, struggles can feel straight-up stupid, and yet they produce growth and maturity in us like nothing else. It’s often only after we get to the other side that we stop and thank God that in His kindness, He allowed the storm.

If you’re fighting a storm and, instead of speaking peace to the waves, Jesus is merely helping you row, it’s probably because God is using it to carry you to a new place. The waves just may be God’s way of getting you to move.

Movement holds promise.

I love the saying, “If you don’t like where you are, move. You’re not a tree.” That’s so funny and obvious … except when moving hurts.

Move anyway.

I cause myself no end of pain when my heart, for fear of change, stubbornly refuses God’s bid for my attention. I’ve found that most transitions, like it or not, are God-brought, and therefore, full of His promise and provision. So, instead of beating my head against the proverbial brick wall, what I need to do is abandon the fight and move with the waves.

C. S. Lewis said, “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self — all your wishes and precautions — to Christ.”

We weren’t created to cling to anything above God, and when we do so, we can’t go where He wants to take us. Terrible and impossible as it may feel, if we refuse to let change come, we’re like a drowning man fighting his would-be savior.

Align your soul with the movements of God, and turn your face toward His promises.

You were created for the wind.

While driving the other day, I noticed a moth on my side-view mirror hanging on for dear life. I watched it for a few minutes being beaten by the wind, and finally found myself saying out loud (and a little too emphatically, considering I was talking to a moth), “Just let go! You have wings!”

This creature, created for flowers, trees and wind, struggled because it was holding on to something it wasn’t meant to hold on to and battling the wind that was meant to carry it.

Do you find yourself here? Battling the very thing God wants to use to carry you to the place where His plan for you can play out? Have you let fear clip your wings?

It’s time to let go.

Let go of unhealthy agreements.

Romans 8:6 (NLT) says, “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

For me, fear has been the biggest, ugliest part of my former nature. Oh, I know it’s dead — crucified and buried with Christ — but when I refuse to let it lie, I’m willfully nurturing a toxic relationship. I have neglected my wings and agreed with the ground far too many times.

We must abandon unhealthy agreements that wear like cement shoes. Our agreement with fear robs us of love; worry steals our peace; anger holds hostage our joy. The truth is, my old self only hangs around when I entertain it. As soon as I stop serving drinks, it leaves. When it comes knocking again, I don’t have to open the door.

Colossians 1:13 tells us that we have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of God. Why do we, again and again, crawl back to the confines of the cocoon from which we emerged a new creature?

Let go of your head; you’re not who you were. Now that you can fly, don’t let anything keep you earthbound.

Trust the One who knows you.

Psalm 41:12 (MSG) says, “You know me inside and out, you hold me together, you never fail to stand me tall in your presence so I can look you in the eye.”

God created us to know Him, and then made Himself known to us. He made us a people who would search for Him and Himself a God who would be found. God knows your question, so He made Himself the answer. His love will always find you. There is nothing you will ever encounter that He will not move heaven and earth to get you through.

Don’t reject the wind of God that will carry you to the divine purpose for which you were created, simply because you’re afraid to let go of what feels comfortable and familiar. Trust Him. It’s in the letting go that we learn to live in His manifest promises.

Are you holding on to something that’s beating the life out of you? Is it taking all your energy simply to hang on? It’s time to let the wind you’ve been battling carry you instead.

Today God is saying, “Just let go! I gave you wings!”

Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light. (Ephesians 5:14 NLT)