May 30, 2015 by Erin

Letting Go

It’s a contradiction–we gain so many things by letting go. This is Scripture, yes–he who loses his life will find it–but it’s also the solid necessity of how things work. We’ll never find what we’re really seeking, namely love, joy, and peace, except in a place of wild abandonment. We know this to be true, or at least our pop songs do. No one sings along in the car to a song about self-protection and safety.

And yet, the abandoned love we celebrate, how often do we really love that way? Which is to say, how often do we love at all? Really-loving is risking, because, try as we might, we can’t control the outcome. This isn’t just about romance–it’s about nearly everything worthwhile. The question is always this, whether we’re dating, or starting a business, or fighting poverty, or planting a garden: can we offer fully without knowing whether it will work out?

The truth is if we can’t, we’ll never have the thing worth having. Before receiving, there must be the wild moment of letting go. There are no guarantees in that moment, no promises of gain. Pain and loss are a real possibility. It may not go as we hoped.

But then again, it may.