living with open hands...

Oh the truth in this statement… although living in the reality of this truth just doesn’t come naturally for most. Losing something we value isn’t easy. We are a people who live with clenched fists, holding tightly to what we deem is ours, protecting what we think should be. We don’t easily let go.

Learning to live with open hands is counter-intuitive… but then again, isn’t most of our spiritual life? Our instincts say make a plan, take control- but Jesus says to be still and trust in the unknown. Everything in us screams to try harder and earn approval- but Jesus says his yoke is easy, his burden is light and his love is complete.

Living with open hands makes us vulnerable to losing things, letting good slip through our fingers… but it’s a heart that trusts in God’s goodness that is able to say, “It’s ok, a better blessing is coming to fill my hands again.” CS Lewis understood this, but I have to say, I have a hard time with this sometimes...

We read that every good and perfect gift is from above… and that the Lord wants to prosper us, not harm us… and that in all things He’s working for our good. Sometimes I fear, though, that claiming these promises for myself means I’m buying into a prosperity gospel that values health, wealth, and happiness above true communion with our Lord. I never want to be in a place of choosing the gift over the Giver of the gift.

I'm learning that in the context of these promises, we need to redefine blessing, favor, prosperity, gifts… shatter what our world has made them to mean, and see them through the lens of how God intends them. Blessings don’t always come easy. Sometimes the blessing is in the struggle, the loss, the season of waiting, the act of surrender. We live in an instant gratification society- we want something so we go get it or we make it happen. But when I look at my life, the most meaningful things that come to mind are the things where there has been tension of some sort, or things that have emerged only when I allowed God to have His way rather than trying to do things my way…

When I’ve chosen to live with open hands and a heart of trust. These are the times I’ve learned that when I lose one blessing, another is just around the corner.