readings

Here's more from Sally Breedlove's Choosing Rest...

A father who understood the significance of letting go of fear in order to receive the gift of joy wrote a letter to his daughter. With their permission I give you a portion of his wise words.

Underneath the idea of carpe diem is the concept that you do not need to fear the will of God. I know there is a strong tendency in all of us to hold out for control because we are fundamentally afraid that God is going to rip us off if we really let Him be God of our whole lives. He'll take away what we really want and make our lives dull and prosaic. There is no reason to resist Him today. There is nothing gained in delaying the best that God offers us. Bottom line, God is really good, and you have no need to fear Him.

So the choice really is ours. We can hang onto our fears, insisting that until they are resolved, there is no way for us to enter into rest, or we can see those same fears as the door by which we can enter a rest far richer and sweeter than the rest that might arise from a tenuous arrangement of perfect circumstances. That rest flows out of the security of our relationship with God. It is a rest that bleieves that a life without all the pieces in place, a life in which we do indeed suffer lack, is still a life to celebrate, a good gift from a good God. yes, the choice is difficult, but if we lay down our fears, choosing instead the heart and the arms of God, the gate will open to rest.