Freedom in Letting Go
Simplicity and Letting Go
Reflection By Robbin Brent
John the Baptist’s minimalism was an act of faith.
- Gary Manning
It’s easy to choose between something we love and want and something we don’t. But it is much more difficult to choose between things we think we both want and need. In Sunday’s reflection, Gary Manning described this tension when he wrote about the challenge he faced when he had to choose to let go of things he thought were essential for the journey. Yet he discovered along the way that even some of the things he chose to carry that he thought he couldn’t travel without simply weren’t essential to the trip.
What are some of the things we are lugging around even though we don’t need them? This time of year we are cleverly tempted by our culture to jump on the mad merry-go-round of buying more, owning more, eating more, drinking more, wanting more. Sadly, the very things we’re promised will get us more of everything we want end up causing us to feel weighed down and unhappy.
Instead, like John the Baptist, if we can ground ourselves in our faith and heed its guidance toward more simplicity through letting go, we can prevent our stuff from getting in between us and the love of God, which is what we ultimately long for. And from that spaciousness we will be free to be more fully present to the gifts of this holy season.
Making it Personal: What is your response to the connection Gary made when he wrote that John the Baptist’s minimalism was an act of faith? Do you have a desire to lighten your load and free yourself from past choices that no longer serve your life? It yes, is there one thing you are ready to let go of this Advent?