Can You Let Go?

We all have dreams, ambitions, and desires that have followed us from youth. They are the hopes we can’t shake no matter how busy life gets. But can you let go of it? Should you let go of it? And how do you know if giving it up is giving up or trusting God?

My Dream

I’m going on eleven years now of dedicated writing. All along, I’ve had the goal of being published. Of sharing my stories with others and welcoming others into these new worlds.

That’s what I am ultimately: a tour guide of the “what if”.

I can still see my fifteen-year-old self, plugging away at my dad’s computer creating page after page as I explored these new worlds in my head.

But, I’m a middle child. Actually, I’m a middle child squared. I’m not just the middle of three, or one of two middle children (as is the case with families of four or six). I’m the middle of five kids. That’s the middle of the middle children.

And as is typical amongst middle children, I often feared getting left behind, forgotten, and overlooked. I feared this because it often happened.

As I stepped into these new worlds, I recognized a scary fact. I was alone in these worlds.

Here I spent all this time discovering these worlds that just flowed out of me and I couldn’t share my experiences with anyone.

Oh how I longed to be a tour guide for these new worlds and answer people’s questions, and stare in awe with others as the battles commenced and the mythic beasts emerged.

The Drop

You stand at the edge of a cliff, the bottom is so far down its shrouded in black shadows. Wind whistles through the lifeless land and all you taste is dry, dry dust.

Over the edge, you hold your dream. You’ve pursued this dream for years. No one can count the amount of hours you’ve poured into it or the dollars you’ve invested into it. This dream is so close to you and your heart.

Picture this dream in your head. You know what it is. Imagine holding it over this cliff. Should you let go of this dream or not?

It’s not a fun place to be.

To be honest, holding this dream over the edge isn’t accurate. A more true depiction of this scenario is that you yourself are hanging over the edge, and you wonder if you can hold on any longer.

Your dream is attached to you. There’s something about it that’s connected to your soul. How much of yourself are you giving up with this dream? Who will you be if you once and for all turned your back on this ambition?

Can you let go? Should you let go?

The Fear

Friends, I sit here with you too. I’ve longed for this dream eleven years. All my friends and family know me as the writer. Whenever I see one of my old childhood friends, they ask me how my most recent project is going.

If I let this dream go, who would I be? What would they think? How many hours have I poured into this craft and these books? How many times has writing comforted me when everything else seemed to fall apart?

This dream is so tied to myself that it intwines with my future, and you probably feel the same.

Can you let go? Can you watch this goal fall into the darkness below and disappear forever? What would it do to you?

You Must Let Go

And this is the real scary part. It’s not just a can, it’s a must. When it comes to following Jesus, we must let all else go.

Then he (Jesus) said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?’ Luke 9:23-25

Now, trust me when I say that I understand how terrifying this sounds. This is why I spent the first half of this post talking about how much dreams mean to us and how hard it would be to let them go.

But we must obey. If we don’t give it up for the sake of following him, then we don’t truly trust him. You can’t say you trust the Creator of the universe if you are unwilling to listen to what he asks you to do. At the very core of any disobedient act is the belief that we know what’s better for us than God does. Which is certainly not true.

Can You Let Go?

You see, it’s not just a command without meaning. God doesn’t just want our lives to be terrible. He wants the best for us. But that best is him. If we aren’t willing to give everything up and follow him, then we won’t have what is best for us.

So, he’s not just telling us to give something up, he’s asking us to make a trade. He’s asking us to let go of these dreams so we can draw closer to him.

But this isn’t the end of the story either.

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:24-25

There’s a beautiful principle found here in this passage. If you cling to these dreams and don’t give them up, they’ll only ever be dreams, or perhaps one day they’ll become a disappointing reality. However, if you let this dream die, it will bring you new life.

This could happen because you’ll find out that this dream was actually causing you a lot of pain and frustration in life, and letting go of it is freeing. Or, you give it up and then a little later Christ hands it back and it’s far more beautiful than you could’ve imagined.

Jesus continues with this profound concept in Matthew 19:29, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

By letting go of a dream, for the sake of following Christ, there will be a reward of some sort. At bare minimum, this reward is a closer relationship with our God. That’s just what happens when we trust God in the hard things.

Take The Hard Step

I know it’s hard, that’s why I’m doing it with you. But, we must let go of these aspirations and give them up to Christ. Maybe we’ll never see the dreams again, or maybe he’ll give it back to us with new life breathed into it. Either way, we must give it up.

Now, I’m sure that in the course of reading this article, you’ve thought something like this: “but I can’t give it up, I need this dream because it gives me _______ .” I’ll let you fill in the blank. And this right here should tell you that you really must give it up.

The Final Test

If you are depending on anything other than Jesus, then that thing is an idol. You might think you need a job so you can continue eating and living in your house/apartment, but it’s not true. Jesus is the one who’s been providing for you, and he’s been doing that through this job.

This is the real question you should ask yourself, “If I go my whole life and I never see this dream fulfilled, what will I do?” or “If Jesus told me that by following him, I will never see this dream become a reality, would I still follow him?”

It’s okay to work toward dreams. For example, I’m going to keep writing because I love it. But I’m making the scary decision today to say that I don’t need to get published.

As much as I believe in these books and can truly see them making a profound impact, I trust Jesus more.

From here on out, I’m relieving myself of the pressure. I’m going to write because I love it, and because it draws me closer to God.

If my books get published one day, then praise God. If not, then I would’ve enjoyed the journey and drawn closer to my loving creator.

What about you? What dreams must you let go?

 

 

If you’d like to see a few examples of some other dreams God has asked me to give up, check out my blog Two Personal Stories of How God let My Dreams Die

If you found this blog hard and discouraging, I want to point you to a much more encourage post I wrote a little while back: A Message To Your Aching Heart