Sunday, April 14, 2019

Why Letting Go is the Only Way that Leads to Life


Do you like following people?   I don’t.     I’ll do it, but I don’t like it.   If I tell someone that I don’t know where something is, and they say something like, “Oh, don’t worry you can follow me.”   Do you know what I’m going to do?  I’m going to worry. 

Why do I worry.  I like to blame it on my dad.   My dad had a remarkable ability to forget that someone was following him 30 seconds after he got in the car.   So, you came to the first yellow light, and my dad sped through just as it turned red.  All of a sudden, you weren’t following my dad; you were chasing him.  And this all happened before the era of cell phones or GPS.  So, you either had two choices, be a responsible and safe driver and never get to where you were going or risk life and limb pursuing a car that seemed to be doing everything it could to lose you.    Talk about stressful!  

But it’s not really about my dad.  It’s about me. I don’t like to follow because I don’t like the feeling of dependence, that I need to depend on anyone else to get where I am going. I want to be in charge.  I want to be in control. 

But do you realize?  That way of thinking about life, not only will it ultimately destroy you, but it isn’t even true.   And only when you realize that will you be on your way to a life of true fulfillment and peace.  How can that be?  In this story, Jesus shows you the way.   Let’s listen and hear what Jesus has to say.


Life can seem to feel better when you know you’re in control, when you’re in charge.  But here’s the truth, even when you think you’re in control, you’re not.  And only as you realize that, will you find the very life you’re seeking.  Only as you become willing to let go and follow will true joy and peace find you. 

Just look at this story.   These disciples had to let go and follow in some pretty bizarre ways.    

Put these words into your context for a minute.   You and Jesus and the guys are about to go to Miami, but you don’t have any wheels, so Jesus says, “Hey, I’d like you to go into Hollywood, and right by the McDonald’s you’ll see a Red Honda.  You’ll find the door unlocked and the keys in it.  Drive it over here.  If anyone asks anything, then tell them don’t worry the Lord has need of it.”   Doesn’t that sound a little crazy? 

And amazingly, it works.  But still, you might think.  Sheesh, you’re asking a lot here Jesus.  Let me do it my way. 

But here’s what we don’t often see.   When you are going through your life, seemingly doing your own thing, you’re not.   If you’re honest, all sorts of things outside of your control, affect you every day.   You don’t control the weather.  You don’t control the traffic.  Heck, you don’t even control your own body.   Try stopping your heart, or forget that, just try to avoid blinking.    And even the things you think you do control, you don’t really.   Every decision you and I made has all sorts of inputs leading you to that decision, a number of which you are not even aware.

This past Friday, I was getting ready to wake up my son for school, and I couldn’t find my phone.  What drove me nuts is that I just had been looking at it.   I looked everywhere for it, bedroom, family room, kitchen, living room, laundry room, bathroom even, but no phone.   Finally, after about ten minutes, I decided to look in the garage.  And sure enough, there it was.  But here’s the deal.   I don’t ever remember putting it there.  I obviously did put it there, but I have no idea why.        

Have you ever had a moment like that?   Here’s the truth.  Our sense of control is more an illusion than anything else.    But still, even if it is, why give up the illusion?  Why does it make sense to let go and let Jesus point the way?    

Well, why did the disciples do it?  It’s because they realize that it didn’t need to make sense to them, as long as it made sense to Jesus.  They’d seen Jesus do all sorts of things that didn’t make sense, but they worked anyway.   This is the guy who took five loaves and two fish and fed five thousand men not counting women and children.   If he tells us there a donkey and colt in town that is ours to take, then we’ll do it.  All we need to know is that is what he wants us to do. 

Outside of this chapel, we have a labyrinth.   It’s not a maze.  You can’t get lost in it.  If you follow the path, it will always lead you to the center.  But here’s the deal.   As you follow the path, it won’t always make sense.  It will seem to be taking you away from the center, but if you keep trusting the path, it will get you there.   And that’s why we put it there.   God works in our lives the same way.   And if you walk the labyrinth path, it has the power to remind you of just that.   

So, when Jesus takes his disciples on this winding path, they go. The truth is that this whole donkey thing probably didn’t really make sense to them until after his death and resurrection.  Then they went back and looked at the prophecies from the Old Testament and said.  “Oh, so that’s why he did it.”     

And once they realized that, they realized too, that Jesus was following too.   Jesus was following a path that would lead to his death.  And on that path, the most in control being in the universe lost all control, all power.    And why did God, in Jesus, follow that path.  He did it because only that way led to life, to healing, to wholeness. 

From the very beginning, God relinquished control.  In the garden, he planted a tree and then warned Adam and Eve not to eat from it.   Why would he do that?   From the beginning, God was willing to let go, to let those, whom he loved, make a choice, even if it was a bad one. 

And that choice in the garden ultimately led here to this story.  It brought God to this first step of a journey where, in Jesus, God lost control like never before or since.  And he went there simply because he loved us.  He loved us so much he was willing to let go like that, to even let go of life itself.    

Yet as we celebrate on Easter Sunday, that letting go didn’t shut things down, it opened things up.   It changed everything, even the reality of death.    And in that ultimate letting go, God shows you that the way to life lies in following that same journey.     As Jesus put it: “ Those who try to gain their own life will lose it; but those who lose their life for my sake will gain it.”    As you and I trust this God who let go of everything for us, we will find, in that letting go, in that following, the very life we always yearned to have.   So, open your hand and receive what Jesus has for you.  For only in letting go, in dying to your own clinging to control, will you find the way to life.  


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