Day 40 - Letting Go of Life
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this he breathed his last. ~Luke 23:46
As we come to the end of our Lenten Journey on Letting Go, it’s fitting that the final post will be on letting go of life. Choosing to let go of life means embracing death, and Jesus’ death will be our model. Stay with me all the way to the end...The quote above is Jesus’ last utterance as recorded in the book of Luke. There are a couple of important things to notice about these words. The words “into your hands I commit my spirit” come from Psalm 31:5 and, apparently, were used in those times as a bedtime prayer for children. In recent generations, perhaps, English-speaking children might have prayed a somewhat similar prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.” At his most vulnerable moment, Jesus repeats a childhood prayer, one that he likely prayed every night as a child before going to sleep. It’s a prayer of intimacy and trust.Jesus added the very intimate word, “Abba [Father],” as he prayed. A child using this word would be akin to using the word “Daddy” in English; a tender and trusting word. This is often one of the first words children learn to say in English, “Dada.” This word describes and addresses the person that loves and protects a child. In this scene, Jesus leans into the Father, like a child. Even as I write this, my little grandson is sick with a fever and all he wants to do is be held by his mom or his dad. The relationship Jesus had with his father was an intimate and trusted one.Jesus trusted the Father’s hands. As Jesus gave up his life, he knew that the Father’s hands would hold him as he sank into death. He knew that death did not send him into the void, into nothingness, but that death would send him directly to his Father. He knew that the Father’s hands could be trusted to hold him during death and trusted to bring him back to a complete and flourishing life. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As I write this, it is Saturday before Easter. We have journeyed through Lent and are now in the moment between the crucifixion and the resurrection. It’s an odd day. We know that we will celebrate resurrection tomorrow, but we have just spent time remembering the devastation of the death of Jesus. We are in the “in between” time…we are waiting.Letting go is really about dying. It’s about dying to things that keep us from completely attaching to Christ. As we enter into this practice of letting go, we remember how Jesus leaned into his Father with ultimate trust. What would that look like for us?The things I’ve written about with regards to letting go—perfectionism, masks, unforgiveness, shame, comparison, and so on—require a deep intimacy with God and a scaffold of trust in order to really let go. Cultivating intimacy with God opens our eyes to the vast love God has for us. God’s love holds us, like a father’s strong arms hold a hurting child. Letting go of perfectionism, shame or my favorite “mask” may feel like death to me. I may feel if I give up my mask, I will no longer be “me.” Will the “me” I know really have to die? Yes. If I forgive my enemy, will I feel like part of me has died? Yes. If I let go of the trapeze, will I fall and die? Yes. Letting go of the things that keep us from attaching to Christ IS death. There is no way around it. If we are going to follow Christ, we must “die.” We must trust God’s hands like the safety net of the trapeze artist. Falling into God’s loving hands is ultimately for our flourishing. Like Christ’s death, the small deaths we experience by letting go, produce a new life, a resurrected and integrated life.
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ~John 12:24 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ~Colossians 3:3
Putting to death the things that keep us from attaching to Christ—letting go—puts us right in the middle of a life with God. A “with-God” life is a full, complete and flourishing life. Who wouldn’t want that?So, as we wait on this Saturday before Easter, let us make every effort to let go of those things—put to death those things—that keep us from living the “with-God” life.Note: As we have seen in recent world events, following Christ often means actual, physical death as well. I do not mean to minimize that here, but have chosen to focus on a different kind of death—the death of “self.” However, ultimately, as we practice letting go during life, it prepares us for the ultimate letting go—physical death.
