“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe
I think that this is the perfect description of what it means to finally “Let go and let God.” We usually fight tooth and nail to hold on to control of outcomes that we want to happen, and then, when we finally get to that exhausted, exasperated state of throwing up our hands in surrender, usually something which we never even could have planned for or foreseen occurs, and then “turns the tide”, as Harriet Beecher Stowe proclaims.
I’ve shared this story before, but it is worth repeating again. During the Great Recession we were stuck with an underwater house in a different state, where we never planned to go back to again to live. The house, which was once a beloved, carefully conceived treasure, became an enormous, nasty albatross around our necks. When I was complaining about the situation to a friend, she said, “You need to let this go.”
“I have let it go!” I pronounced a little too hysterically. “There is nothing I want more than to be done with this house and this situation.”
“But you haven’t let it go,” she said quietly and confidently. “Look at how your stomach flinches when you talk about it.” And she was right. And from that moment on, I did what I could towards the situation, but I let go of the outcome of it all.
And a very little while later, the house situation was resolved in ways that almost seemed miraculous, and it ended up benefitting so many people, besides just ourselves.
Use today’s blog post as a gut check for yourself. Is there something in your life that has you utterly and completely mentally and emotionally played out? Is there something in your life that is not resolving in the way that you want it to, despite all of your best and every efforts? Is there something that still makes your stomach lurch even when you tell yourself and others, that you don’t care about it anymore? Harriet Beecher Stowe is right. Hold on. This is just about the time, when the tide is bound to turn. Let go and let God. Everything is going to resolve for you, in ways you could never have foreseen. Believe it.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.