Let Go and Let God...

Dear Pali Pres Family,

Recently I had a phone chat with my mom, just to catch up and fill each other in on our lives. As we were saying goodbye, just before we hung up, she said to me, “Remember Matthew, let go and let God.”

Hearing those words made me smile, as my mom has been saying that to me since high school. Any time I would get stressed about school or work or any challenge I was facing, she would encourage me to slow down, take a deep breath, and “let go and let God.”

I know my mom is not alone in using this phrase; the advice to let go of our burdens and let God take them has been around for a long while. And even though is a bit of a spiritual cliché, the wisdom of “letting go and letting God” still carries so much power.

We all are weighed down by sorrows and burdens, some big and some small. And while handing them over to God does not make them disappear, it does provide us with the rest we need until we have found the strength to carry them again. The pain, frustration, or stress we feel becomes more tolerable if it is shared—with friends, family, and certainly with God who always loves us and watches over us.

As theologian Diana L. Hayes puts it:

To “let go and let God” is to put yourself into the hands of God, even for just a little while, until the challenges of life are more bearable. . . . It is not a form of “otherworldly” escape, for the pain, the anger, the fears, the frustrations are always, sadly, a part of life, not because God wants it so, but because of our own human failure to make it different.

I pray that whatever you may be carrying right now, be it big or small, that you will find ways to release it to God. May we trust that we and everything we are going through is held in God’s hands, and feel the rest and encouragement that comes from “letting go and letting God.”

In Christ,

Pastor Matt