It seems the spiritual life and the growth in it is more of a letting go than being an attainment of.

It’s not acquiring, but rather shedding.

Self-transcendence.

Loosening your grip on so much so that nothing holds you.

You need less and less for Life.

Detachment.

The more we’re attached to, the greater chance for temptation, anxiety, and hurt.

But if we prefer nothing to Christ, as the Benedictine monks attempt to live out, what does the evil one have to tempt us with that will work?

Maybe instead of striving for growth and maturity and skill-obtaining, we simply need to let more go and maturity will then precipitate from that weight loss.

I do believe in giving more energy to filling with good than emptying the bad, but is letting go different than emptying? Sounds easier, but not sure it is.

Could this be what Jesus was getting at when He said you have to lose your life in order to find it? When we loosen our kung fu grip on all that we think we need for Life or to be who we are, that’s when we are open to more of God and therefore, closer to who we really are, our True Self, who we were made to be.

For example, when I’ve loosened my grip on my time, gotten over thinking I have to do all these things I want to do or think I need to do, I’ve then been more open and attentive to God’s presence and working and speaking in my life. I am free to soak in His presence because I am no longer preoccupied with all that must be done. Sure I’ve got some things to do, but how many are things I choose? I have to eat, sleep, drink water, feed our children….not much else I guess.

It’s kinda like when people say they got “lost in the music.” Maybe at a concert or something. What happens? You forget where you are, what time it is, maybe even who you are, and become one with the music. A transcendent experience. And it only comes through losing yourself to the music. You simply let go. You are so tuned in, that everything else is tuned out and forgotten for right then only one thing matters. If we can just let go and become one with God, I believe the experience  would be so transforming that there would be no going back unless you suffered some sort of brain damage. Although I have a friend who has suffered brain damage and still clings to God and, miraculously, retains Scripture he memorized before this incident.

Losing our lives, letting go, is the most freeing of “activities” we can participate in, for then we find Life, our life, our True Self.

In the Name of Jesus,
Soli Deo Gloria