It's an odd title, I know, especially for this early in the year. Even though New Year resolutions may be dragging a bit by February, many of us are still more accustomed to focusing on what we need to DO and GAIN rather than what we need to leave behind. But Scripture actually starts with the latter.
"Forgetting what lies behind and straining towards what's ahead, I press on..." (Phil. 3:13)
"Lay aside the weights and sins that so easily entangle, and run the race with endurance, looking to Jesus..." (Hebrews 12:1)
Lately, I've been feeling like I'm at a crossroads in my race, tired of jogging at the same old pace, discouraged by lack of progress, and unsure of what to do in order to maintain momentum. If that's where you are, you're not alone, and I truly believe God has a plan for us to navigate this next season with grace and triumph. But it starts with being willing to lose.
I DO NOT mean giving up on dreams, resigning yourself to defeat in an area where God has promised you victory.
I'm talking about ditching the weights that are holding you back. Many of these began as goals or desires, but they've morphed into idols of our own making. And only we can decide to be done with them.
It's those images in our heads of who we were "supposed" to be by a certain age. The things we believed we deserved, those outward signs of success that we decided were the evidences of God's favor people expected to see on us.
It's all the ways we wanted God to come through for us. And the means by which we thought He would.
It's the things we wanted to understand and approve of BEFORE being willing to trust God in certain areas.
It's the things we just wanted to come more easily.
It's behaviors we've justified in the name of a jaded perspective, even though we know they represent departures from who Christ equipped us to be.
It's the things we said we couldn't...or wouldn't do.
It's scary to release these things because as you do, you realize the gaping emptiness that lies beneath them, space that's been created by forgetting how to dream with the Lord and how much trust that requires. Life isn't a script that we've written and had God sign off on, ensuring that things will work out the way we expected and won't get too heavy to handle. But it's also not over just because it's confusing.
God has called us to an adventure, filled with opportunities to grow in faith while He handles the impact we can't directly control. That sounds risky, but God never asks us to lay anything down without intending to put something better in our hands. He fills our emptiness with Himself, replaces our limited dreams with His expansive ones.
In Him, nothing is wasted. He only ever asks us to leave something behind because He's beckoning ahead into something greater. His greater plan is always something we were meant for, and often something we would have denied ourselves by staying put.
I think of it in terms of the words of Elrond in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King when he encouraged Aragorn to "put aside the ranger" in order to step into the kingly purpose he was designed (and hesitant) to fulfill. Ashamed of his past and afraid of failure, he was trying to rewrite his destiny by choosing a safer identity. But eventually, he had to leave behind the relative safety of the walls he'd built around his life with his own fears and hurts and embrace the role he was born to play (along with all the risk and sacrifice it entailed). And so do we.
It never feels like the right time to do this. It often requires facing what feels like death, even if it's just the death of our own way, our "right" to offense, our illusions of control. But it leads to the only life worth living. The victory Christ purchased for us.
If you're desperate for progress but also desperately afraid, go before the Lord and tell Him He can have absolutely everything. Then sit up and pay attention to wherever He's calling you to lay down the pressure to perform or the weight of an idolatrous image you can't attain to. Leave all that behind, and you'll be freed up to embrace rich relationship with Jesus and effectiveness in your real calling--your place in His bigger plan.
Accepting that you CAN’T have, be, and do everything as you pictured it and choosing to embrace the life you have instead is actually a good and freeing thing that can save you from crashing. There are seasons God is purposely phasing out, things God wants you to release your grip on, and though that can feel like death, it is meant to propel you on. If depression and discouragement are still part of your story, view them as injuries you're contending with; sometimes you might fight with them for years, but they aren’t who you are. And one day, they won't have the same grip on you as they did before.
Brave ones, step out when God calls you, whether you think you're ready or not. Leave it all behind--anything that tells you this is a losing effort, anything that holds you to a goal you can't achieve in your own strength.
Step forward fully believing in your faithful God and the powerful future He has for you. The equipping, progress, and victory you're craving isn't found by staring at the disappointments that have locked certain gates. Your destiny is found on the move with Author and Finisher of your faith.
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