hang on and let go

Ya’all better hold on tight

2020 is fixin’ to turn 21

and start drinkin’

                     Unknown

 

Help me to journey beyond the familiar

and into the unknown.

Give me the faith to leave old ways

and break fresh ground with You. . .

                     from the Prayer of St. Brendan

______________________________________

 

every winter (or summer, depends on where you live)

as the calendar year come to an end

we like to pretend that we are joyously leaving

the old year behind

 

letting go of the past

moving on to the future

 

getting rid of the old

embracing the new

 

we make a big show of it!

and it’s a total joke

 

we are people prone to cling

we cling to old hurts

we cling to old victories

we cling to ways of thinking and behaviors

 

we have a death grip on what was and is

and our eyes seems to constantly look back

to “the golden age”

 

certainly the past is important

it both shapes and informs us

 

but our failure to “let go”, to de-fuse from the past

can be devastating

for both us as individuals

and us as a “corporation” a society

 

in the United Stated our inability to let go of old ideologies

the ideology of white supremacy

and of domination

 

has led to the fabric of our country being torn asunder

 

for we cannot move on without facing

and healing

and letting go of the past

 

only then can newness emerge

only then can we bloom and go

 

why is it so hard to move on to what is next?

 

Because letting go so often feels like death

we are letting go of what is certain and known

moving into what is uncertain and unknown

 

we are leaving behind the things we have relied on

those things from which we have gotten our identity

our sense of value

 

Jesus understood how dramatic this is

which is why he said we must die to live

 

the only way to resurrection, to newness of life

is through crucifixion

 

as I enter into this new year

the question I am asking myself is this

“In what ways do I need to die?”

 

What do I need to let go of?

What do I need to leave behind to press forward?

 

And this is not just a question for the new year

This is the question I must ask every day of my life

Perhaps every moment

 

What am I clinging to?

What have I become dependent on?

What have I allowed to become my identity?

 

Once I have figured that out

I have to let go…

 

death must precede resurrection

this is “the only trustworthy pattern of spiritual transformation” *

 

I have to die to the old

so that Sacred may pick up all the debris,

all the flotsam of my life,

and make something new

 

it is always a risk to do this

always scary

but every time I let go

every time I “trust the dying”*

I find my self anew

A better self, a larger self

 

and I move closer

to being what I was created to be

a Sacred child

 

*this language comes from Richard Rohr in his book The Universal Christ