what do you grasp to for life

I finally admitted it to myself. As I packed my hairdryer for our overnight family camping trip — yes, I did — I said to myself with conviction, “I’m not a hard-core camper. And I’m OK with that.”

My idea of camping includes a shower and electricity and a camper with an indoor bathroom so I don’t have to leave the warm sleeping bag to walk through the pitch black, cold, creepy night to a bug-infested bath house that smells like my elementary school. But that’s just me.

I still go camping. And I even do it with a (mostly) good attitude because my kids love it and I want them to remember that I had a smile on my face when we became “one with nature”…with electricity. But admitting the stark reality of my true camping feelings really freed me.

That said. We went camping last weekend.

When evening came we piled onto my uncle’s pontoon boat and watched the sun set behind the mountains. The sky literally looked like God lit it on fire with orange and pink. It was spectacular. Then my daughter and niece reached up as if they were trying to touch…glory.

I look at their sweet little hands reaching to the sky and I’m reminded how desperately I long to reach for God with abandon.

But one thing has to happen if we’re going to go “all in” with Him. We have to let go of everything down here that we cling to for life. Just like those girls had to let go of the railing, we have to release our grip from things on this planet that we want to control or change or depend upon in efforts to find the joy and peace that only He can give.

We deceive ourselves and settle for less when we reach for God with only one hand. When we only give Him half our heart or half our attention, we’re the ones who lose out.

 

And (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
Matthew 22:37-38 (emphasis mine)

 

I asked God to show me that on which I’m most prone to keep my fingers gripped tight. And two things came quick to my mind: people and plans.

I like it when people do what I think they should do. And I like it when things go as I had mentally planned. But newsflash, I’m not God. I can’t see hearts or know the beginning from the end.

We humans have a tendency to want people to do what we think they should do, ultimately to fill a need in us. And we want life to go as we had planned, so we feel like we’re the ones in control. Yet we’re the ones who miss out when we keep grasping to things that can never fully satisfy. We settle for less.

Reaching for God with abandon means we open our hands. We say, “These people and these plans — they’re not mine to hold or manipulate or control. You alone fulfill the longings of my soul. You are in control. And You are forever good and faithful. Have Your way.”

And you know the beauty? When we truly release and turn our gaze to our Maker, reaching for Him with abandon, we find that He’s been gazing at, reaching towards, and pursuing our wayward hearts the entire time.

 
Fill me, Lord…

What have you been most tempted to grasp to?
 

 
And I wanted to tell you that I guest posted on Stacey Thacker’s blog yesterday. I talked about my nephew and his tendency to say that people aren’t nice when they don’t do what he wants. Oh and (of course) how that reflects us. Yep. You and me. Click here to read that post.