Let Go, Let Be, Let Come Part 3

 

Let go, let be, and let come has been our practice this week.  I wonder, what your experience of this has been so far?  Maybe you didn’t realize all you were carrying ~ no wonder you were gasping and your muscles aching.  Or I often realize that I am trying to hold grains of sand while all of life feels like it is slipping away.  Or maybe you’ve found this practice too simplistic.  We all dance to the blues of “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen/felt/held”.  You are right.  No one has seen or felt or lived your life.  No one knows exactly how you feel, and no one can walk a mile in your shoes.  At the same time, all people experience pain.  To be sure, we love to be the judge and jury, telling someone that their pain isn’t as bad as our pain.  That day, they stubbed their toe?  Well, I broke my tooth, got yelled at by my boss, and my pet goat ran away.  One feature of being human is suffering, but we often do so in isolation.  We often think that Jesus suffered alone.  But in John’s gospel, we are told that the beloved disciple and the courageous/fiercely faithful women stood at the foot of the cross, unwilling to let Jesus die alone.  Today, I want to invite you to share a pain you are carrying with others.  I know this is vulnerable because it will open you to that well-meaning, loving person telling you what to do or sharing their own pain as if it were some competition.  We need to be careful.  You can come talk to me, and I promise not to do that.  To share pain is to share your life.  To speak aloud what we tightly grasp is to open space for the Spirit to move.  I pray that in sharing, speaking aloud that which you have been holding in the cramped, confining space of your fist might help you let go, let be, and let come a Spirit that longs to work in your life and mine.  Amen.