Let it out...Let it go...Let it happen...Let it be...
I was driving down the rode after a conversation with someone who shared a deep secret with me that had held them hostage for years. I remember saying to them at one point when they were wrestling with whether they should tell me or how they should tell me..."Just let it out." I don't know why I said it that way. It sounds somewhat abrupt writing it down today, but in that moment, it seemed like they needed that kind of forceful nudge.
They "let it out".
The reason I remember that phrase is that in the midst of the unfolding moments to follow as they were going through the grief and loss and shame and guilt that was associated with the secret, I said in the middle of a thought, "You got to just let it go." The minute I said 'let it go', my brain remembered that 15 minutes earlier I had said regarding their secret, to let it out. Now I was saying to their shame, let it go.
I'm weird about this stuff, I know. But words are fascinating to me, and phrases like this will sometimes leave me spellbound in delight. As I thought about these two phrases, two more phrases hit me on the way home after my meeting was over. They stayed in keeping with the "let it..." modus operandi. The phrases were "let it happen" and "let it be".
It may sound goofy, but my mind kept rehearsing these four statements and the order with which they were unfurling in my inner dialogue. I felt like they made sense of even how I process things inside when I face 'moments of truth' along the way each day.
With your secrets and emotions and confusion and doubt and unedited thoughts, let it out.
With your shame and sorrow and guilt and anger and bitterness and revenge, let it go.
With your story and purpose and talents and passion and uniqueness, let it happen.
With your dreams and hopes and control and expectations, let it be.
I wonder if this lens with which to view life and filter through which to interpret it could be helpful as a tool to work through whatever gets 'hung up' in any one of these phases or stages. Sometimes I let it out, but don't do very well at letting it go. Sometimes I work through those two, but struggle to let life happen or once it does, to just let it be. The "It is well with my soul" kind of 'let it be'. To not writhe as I try to control people or outcomes or perceptions. To not over-think and over-spiritualize things, but to relax and let life happen naturally without tampering and tinkering with it so much that I kill it and keep it from happening, or happening healthily.
You get what I'm saying.
"So Lord, when I feel like things are building up and bottled up inside of me, help me to "let it out". When I feel bound to sin or contaminated with an attitude or racked with guilt or harassed by shame, help me to "let it go". When I want to control every aspect of life whether it's my kids or my job or the world around me...or even just get lost in editing myself to present my best self to the world, help me to just "let it happen". And when it's all said and done, when it's happened for the good or not so good, help me to trust you and find the stillness of soul to sit in the moment and just "let it be" knowing that you're sovereign and that you have a purpose for every single success and failure. Give me the wherewithal to take myself through this mental exercise as many times each day as I need to in order to rid myself of the shell I can become. Pull me out of these paralyzing places and into your freedom, Lord."
Amen.
They "let it out".
The reason I remember that phrase is that in the midst of the unfolding moments to follow as they were going through the grief and loss and shame and guilt that was associated with the secret, I said in the middle of a thought, "You got to just let it go." The minute I said 'let it go', my brain remembered that 15 minutes earlier I had said regarding their secret, to let it out. Now I was saying to their shame, let it go.
I'm weird about this stuff, I know. But words are fascinating to me, and phrases like this will sometimes leave me spellbound in delight. As I thought about these two phrases, two more phrases hit me on the way home after my meeting was over. They stayed in keeping with the "let it..." modus operandi. The phrases were "let it happen" and "let it be".
It may sound goofy, but my mind kept rehearsing these four statements and the order with which they were unfurling in my inner dialogue. I felt like they made sense of even how I process things inside when I face 'moments of truth' along the way each day.
With your secrets and emotions and confusion and doubt and unedited thoughts, let it out.
With your shame and sorrow and guilt and anger and bitterness and revenge, let it go.
With your story and purpose and talents and passion and uniqueness, let it happen.
With your dreams and hopes and control and expectations, let it be.
I wonder if this lens with which to view life and filter through which to interpret it could be helpful as a tool to work through whatever gets 'hung up' in any one of these phases or stages. Sometimes I let it out, but don't do very well at letting it go. Sometimes I work through those two, but struggle to let life happen or once it does, to just let it be. The "It is well with my soul" kind of 'let it be'. To not writhe as I try to control people or outcomes or perceptions. To not over-think and over-spiritualize things, but to relax and let life happen naturally without tampering and tinkering with it so much that I kill it and keep it from happening, or happening healthily.
You get what I'm saying.
"So Lord, when I feel like things are building up and bottled up inside of me, help me to "let it out". When I feel bound to sin or contaminated with an attitude or racked with guilt or harassed by shame, help me to "let it go". When I want to control every aspect of life whether it's my kids or my job or the world around me...or even just get lost in editing myself to present my best self to the world, help me to just "let it happen". And when it's all said and done, when it's happened for the good or not so good, help me to trust you and find the stillness of soul to sit in the moment and just "let it be" knowing that you're sovereign and that you have a purpose for every single success and failure. Give me the wherewithal to take myself through this mental exercise as many times each day as I need to in order to rid myself of the shell I can become. Pull me out of these paralyzing places and into your freedom, Lord."
Amen.
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