Choose Carefully
Click below to listen to the reach:
Choose carefully what you hold tightly. Choose carefully.
Always, the week after Easter my mind find its focus on this hidden treasure of thought. Jesus, in obedience to the Father, laid down e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. His life. His defenses. His protection. His very skin. He did not do what He could have done — for he could have called down the fury of warrior angels to avenge His innocence and expose evil. He simply obeyed the way the Father had chosen.
And…..we live in the flow of that obedience.
We live under the cover of His blood.
We have a Savior to follow.
His way is the good way.
He is the way.
It’s during this week that God brings my heart to look at my own soul and ask “it”, what are you holding on to? What are you gripping with white knuckles? For in truth — if it is of God, there is no need to white knuckle it. But if it is of self, then the white knuckling reveals something that needs to be seen. The grip is of my own design….it is not an obedience….it is a stubbornness. The tight hold reveals something I am choosing to let matter too much.
Why does God the Father repeatedly bring me to this place of self-introspection that goes soul deep? Because He has just carried me through — the meditation of Passover and Lent — and the remembering of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Resurrection Morning. He has just reminded us of HIS OWN WILLINGNESS to lay down what He treasured. He laid down the life of His own Son, Jesus, to make a way for us. For you. For me. For anyone who will choose Him.
So can we say that even God is willing to let go of and lay down what He loves? Indeed we can.
For He does this with each of us.
God, the Mighty, Holy, Pure, Creator and Lover of your soul — is willing to lay you down to your own plans. Oh but he hopes we will choose to lay ourselves down in His hands.
God had to release, fully surrender Jesus into the hands of humans. He watched as his son died on the cross. He knew the depths of what happened between Heaven and Hell as Jesus set straight what sin had warped. God did not intervene. Oh He could have. But He did not. God knew the surrendered sacrifice of Jesus would defeat the grip of sin on lives for all generations — He knew the great depth of all that Jesus was accomplishing. But don’t think for one second that God was distant from the work at the Cross. Oh no….He was wildly attentive. He knew each cut of the cat-of-nine-tails. He saw the plucking of His son’s beard. He heard each slandering word thrown at the Holy Lamb. He watched in agony as they placed the spikes in the surrendered palm of His son’s hand…and hammered them through flesh and into wood. He ached over the suffering His son willingly endured.
He knew full well the cost.
He also knew all that Jesus was willingly accomplishing on that cross and in that tomb.
God Himself did not white knuckle Jesus.
Jesus did not white knuckle what He wanted.
The week after the empty tomb — I’m reminded to follow the beautiful lead of my Savior and look deeply into the tomb crevices of my soul. And ask myself:
What am I holding onto so tightly — that real life is being hindered?
What matters so much to me — that I can not see clearly what matters most to God?
What am I carelessly doing — that is hindering the goodness that is needed?
What am I choosing — that keeps me from what God is hoping for?
What am I holding so tightly to that the knuckles of my soul are turning white when instead life-giving blood should be flowing freely through them?
What do we need to forgive?
What do we need to say to another that has been wounded by our words?
What do we need to give up?
What do we need to make right?
What pain have we caused….but we’ve “justified” ourselves in our own minds….and yet there is another who is limping over the loss we inflicted on them?
Who is enduring a loss of love because we refused to humble ourselves and simply love them?
Jesus held nothing in reserve. Why would I dare think I am justified to do so?
The week after the empty tomb — is not just a week to “return to normal” — it’s a week where the result of His work on the cross and resurrection from the tomb — should bring about proof of His power and goodness in our lives.
He white knuckled nothing.
Dare we think we can?
The agony of the cross, the tearing of the veil from top to bottom, the blood that poured from the final sacrificial lamb and the miracle of the empty tomb all swirl together to make a way for us. We were given the greatest example of how very much God can accomplish when we are willing to surrender our plans, our dreams, our opinions, and our defenses…..and instead live out the powerful beauty of surrendering to His way.
Jesus said it perfectly — Luke 22:42
Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet, not My will, but Yours be done.
He knew all that was ahead of Him. He asked if there could be another way. And yet, what He truly cared about the most, was that the good will of the good Father be accomplished.
The week after our remembering of the cross and the empty tomb — may we follow His beautiful example. We do not carry the weight of the world’s sins on our shoulders as Christ did. Oh but we people tend to avoid looking at what we should be facing. The way out is through. The way to the Father’s freedom is the Jesus way. Are we brave enough to look within and let go?
Are you brave enough to ask the Father, He will be kind enough to show you where He sees white knuckles. He is hoping for the blood of Jesus to flow freely as you release your grip and surrender to His way….. it’s a breathtaking revisiting of “not my will, but Yours be done.”
There is miraculous freedom in surrender to the Father. Miracles still flow there.
