A Season of Letting Go

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne (Hebrews 12:2).

Everyone eventually faces a season of letting go. 

Sometimes we are ushered into this inevitability without warning.

The day we raced through midnight chasing the helicopter that bore our son to a burn trauma center was one such moment. The night my best friend sped over twisty mountain roads to the hospital where her dying daughter lay was one such hour. Strange and terrible that so many seasons change in the darkness of night.

Sometimes we know a season of letting go is coming. We plan for it, or we dread it. But on it charges, like a speeding train headed straight for our hearts. 

Letting go of my children as they take flight into adulthood has been like that. Saying goodbye to memories in a family home when it’s time to move on is like that. Hugging friends one last time before getting on a plane to move overseas is like that.

But letting go is part of moving on, and as a wise mentor said to me recently, “Letting go is not a severing. It is a releasing. And the purpose of release is always return.”

Have you ever contemplated Jesus’ final months from the perspective of letting go? How He must have hurt.

But also… how He must have anticipated.

Jesus had future joy in mind as He took the towel and gently washed his disciples’ feet. He had joy in mind as He cried tears like drops of blood and said, “Not my will, but Yours be done, Father.” Jesus had joy in mind as He looked into Peter’s guilty eyes across the courtyard while the rooster crowed.

Letting go is painful. But there is joy on the other side, and there is a way to find it even as we grieve our goodbyes. #grief #transition #hope #joy Click To Tweet

Observe Abram, who “went out, not knowing where he was going” (see Hebrews 11:8). Leaving behind the comforts of home and culture, he fixed his eyes on God’s sure promises.

Consider Joseph, who drew a boundary with his brothers and watched them leave in sorrow (see Genesis 42). He knew what His God could do, what He had already done, and Joseph was willing to release them in faith that God had a great Returning in mind.

Think of the father of the prodigal son in Jesus’ great parable in Luke 15:11-32. Even as his heart grieved, he let go of his determined son and waited for the joyful day he would come back home.

When we fix our eyes on Jesus, the season of letting go becomes a season of Anticipation.

A season of Hope in God’s sure promises.

A season of Expectancy of healing and renewal.

A season of Preparation for the day of celebration when the lost are found and the released are returned.

The Messiah Jesus led the way for each of us through the Season of Letting Go. Let us fix our eyes on Him today and open our hands… release.

Thank You, Jesus, for showing me how to let go. Help me fix my eyes on the joy You have secured for me. Amen.

@audreycfrank