Letting go...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

This past year really caused me to realize I can't always control what direction my life will take. While we make plans and assumptions, God may have a different picture in mind for our actual destination. 

Or even a detour or two along the way. 

Some of us do better with change than others, but giving up our goals, dreams, even life, to God isn't an easy thing to do. 

There are times I want something for myself because I believe it will either bring me happiness, contentment, or fill a certain void. I don't necessarily stop to see if God and I are on the same page because I just assume he sees things with the same perspective as me. 

So when my plans don't work out, I wonder why.

I feel hurt. Forgotten. Impatient.

I grow frustrated, eventually resigned.

Finally, I stop and wait because that's all I can do.

Then somewhere amidst all these emotions, I discover my life has changed course almost without my knowing it. 

And it turns out that this new corner I've turned is much better, beyond even the one I originally envisioned.

Because now God's steering the ship and I'm taking a backseat.

In reality though, letting go sounds so much simpler than it truly is. It's usually a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, struggle; one we might never fully conquer. 

However, I'm discovering it's the striving, not the perfection, which pleases God most.

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14

What is it you may need to let go...in order to let God?