You drowning?

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. (Havelock Ellis)

At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

What do you hold onto what actually weighs you down? A drowning man seeks to be free of all that adds weight to his body - shoes, jacket, shirt, and even pocket change! Why? It will drag him down - creating extra 'drag' on his body. Learning what creates 'drag' in our lives versus what liberates us to move freely is sometimes quite a challenge. We hold onto what God says we should give up and then wonder why we don't seem to have the 'capacity' to take on what he wants to give us next. 

I know this seems simplistic, but when God deals with something in our lives, he is asking us to give it over to him. Does this mean it will never surface again as a memory or 'tempting force'? No, but just because the man sees his shed shirt and jacket come to the surface once again, it doesn't mean he has to put them on! He shed them for a reason, and he needs to remember all he did to be rid of their 'drag' in his life. He also remembers what his end goal is - to be rescued, placed on dry ground, and living without encumbrances.

The drowning man clings to that which gives him buoyancy and lets go of what weighs him down. We cannot cling to both - one will pull us down if we don't rid ourselves of it. Christ's goal is to give us 'buoyancy' in this walk. When he asks us to let go of something, it is meant to be a means of finding that 'buoyancy'. When we let go of what gives us 'buoyancy' and reach again for what will just pull us down, we struggle to keep going until we let go again and reach for his hands once more. Just sayin!