Hanging on Too Tightly

Sometimes holding on too tightly to an old story can limit our ability to move forward with hope and purpose.

Have you ever noticed when things start to go sideways, you react by holding on tight to keep things as they were? Maybe you even dig in your heels to try and stop the impending change?

It’s as though you believe if you try hard enough things will return to normal. I do this sometimes – even though it may not even be the best for me–but I know it is what I want.

I have a feeling that we fight against unwanted changes especially when they feel like a personal loss. Relationship breakdowns or break ups, job loss, betrayals, disappointments, financial losses, boundaries, loss of a loved one, moves, and life transitions. I wonder if it is because we can’t accept the harsh reality of what is right before us–staring us in the face. So, instead, we hold onto the “what was” or “what should be” almost as if we have the power to stop or alter the onslaught of an oncoming change.

What we forget, in those times, is that God wants us to hold on tight to Him so that we can process, heal, grow, and integrate these changes and losses into our hearts and minds so we can move forward anew, transformed, differently, with new purpose.

Holding onto the past can’t change things, but holding on to the One who heals and brings hope can change how we move forward …

Living in the present looking towards the future, while learning from the past can bring new insights and new hope-and if we let it in-new purpose. How much time we spend in each of these places, in the past, in the present and in the future can show us what we are hanging onto and maybe even who we are hanging onto.