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A friend once said to me that she was learning about the gift of letting go, and I immediately related to what she was saying. There are several gifts of the Spirit listed in Scripture, but you won’t find the “gift of letting go” there. So, it’s not a gift that some people have and others don’t. Rather it is a gift we give ourselves, and we are the only ones who can do that—and everyone desperately needs this gift.
I began to make a list of what we often need to let go of, and I was thinking that maybe this list would be helpful to you as well.
Letting Go of Our Dreams
We all need goals and visions and missions that we aspire to and work toward. So, I’m not talking about letting go of God-given dreams and ambitions. I’m talking about letting go of your daydreams, for one thing. If you’re not careful, you can find yourself living in a world of daydreams. I think this is often a result of missing pieces in our lives, and we start to build a fictional world in our minds around that missing piece.
For example, if you want to be married and that piece is missing in your life right now, you can start daydreaming about how wonderful married life would be. Even if there is no potential mate in sight, you can imagine the perfect mate who would fulfill all your dreams and make that make-believe world a reality. That may seem harmless—and small amounts of very occasional daydreaming are—but when it becomes mind-consuming, you are setting yourself up for discouragement, depression, disappointment and disillusionment. And another thing—living in that make-believe world consumes time and energy and keeps you from productive activities.
Then sometimes you need to let go of a life-long dream and trust God for your future. If you’re dealing with a broken dream—one that seemed like a dream-come-true but instead has turned into a nightmare—you may be at that point where you need to let it go. Believe me, I know that seems like mission impossible, but it’s not as hard as you think it will be, and if it’s time to let go, God will reward you with a peace that will amaze you. I’ve been there, and I remember when I finally let go of my broken dream, peace swept over me like I never imagined and I realized how much of my pain was self-inflicted.