Being the Beloved:
stories of ongoing transformation in daily life
By Rev. Terry Tripp
With last month’s blog, and this month, we have a theme of “letting go.” The summer can be a time to do different things, look freshly at the year to date, and have an eye to what is ahead for the fall. A discernment question to hold in prayer might be: what is God inviting me to let go of, and what am I just weary of, wanting relief from?"
This month we revisit a blog article from April 2022…
In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus is preparing his disciples for ministry amongst their fellow Israelites. A new message is being given. The old has passed away and the new has come, the new being profoundly known in Jesus’ ministry. The Kingdom of Heaven has begun in the life and death of Christ. The words in Matthew’s gospel are confounding. Jesus says, ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth, I have not come to bring peace, but a sword’ (Matt. 10:34).
Jesus goes on to explain that within family circles there will be division about who God is. There will be misunderstanding and a desire to be right. How can this be? There are more questions than answers in this passage for me, but I am aware of a sense of the radical nature of what Christ came to do. It required a radical alignment with Him in order that the world would be saved. Is this not what we are living right now? And it is what it means to “let go” of one’s own preferences in order to align with love.
In our own small worlds, away from the darkness that extends across our own country, Ukraine, Russia, and parts unknown, we have an opportunity to extend Jesus’ love to those around us – “to pick up our cross [laying down our burdens] and follow Jesus” (Matthew 10:38). We have an opportunity to stop defending our position and simply love the other as ourselves.
In my life, right now, this looks like “letting go” of what was for me a life’s work and living into the spaces that are unfilled yet. I cannot find solace in outward “doing” to find my value. But instead I lean into an inward acknowledgement of God’s profound acceptance of me, just as I am.
It is a timely message for my relationships with my children as well. I have three grown children, now well into adulthood. Each of them, in their own way, is finding life to be not as they hoped, but as it is. So, too, I am finding my role in each of their lives to be not as I had hoped, but as it is. Knowing when to keep my mouth shut is important. I am learning to let them have their own failures and successes, and to find my security in following Jesus when it seems they do not. “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39).
Losing my life right now is in line with my Lent observance. Finding that together we are broken, me, my children—all of us. Our journeys toward healing and wholeness are God’s job. My job is to ‘let go’ of my expectations of life and relationships, and to be open to how God will bring about God’s Kingdom on Earth through my relationship with God in the here and now. I am keeping my eyes on Jesus; “the author and perfecter of my faith” (Hebrews 12:2) – knowing that brokenness is a part of the healing. I am taking responsibility for what is mine and letting go of what is not mine.
My role is to trust that God is at work through suffering and darkness and will make all things right if we but ‘lose our lives to gain them.’ This is a season of trust and letting go, opening ourselves to becoming a part of what God intends to do. Through our trust and openness, God will bring all of humanity – God’s cherished children – into alignment with God’s intentions.
Be a part of what God is doing in and through you in this season of ‘letting go,’ so that you follow only Jesus on the road of suffering; choosing love as the ‘weapon’ of transformation and wholeness. That is the ‘sword’ of peace.
What books, media, activities are nurturing your heart, soul, mind, strength in this season as we are loving God and our neighbor as ourselves? Post in the comments below or hop on over to our Facebook page and share with one another.