Letting Go

All great spirituality is about letting go. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection show us how to win by losing. (Philip Simmons)

The idea of ‘letting go’ is one that can be, ironically, hard to grasp.  To let go should seem to be easy as it shouldn’t seem to be anything that takes a lot of effort or be something that we resist.  However, it is all that and more.  The idea of spirituality being about letting go is also counter intuitive.  Spirituality is about developing and enhancing our relationship with God―or the divine if that is more compatible with your ideology and theology.

However, when you reflect on the idea of letting go, it becomes clearer what this idea is getting at.  How much of our attitudes and beliefs and way of being in life involves holding on to those things for dear life as hard as possible for better or worse.  Our beliefs and attitudes and perhaps philosophy of life―examined or unexamined―form our way of understanding and being in the world.  If these foundational issues are questioned and challenged, we will probably not react in a positive way―unless it is to be positively infuriated. 

When I read the statement which I lead off with, I was reminded of a little educational cartoon which was in a Tarzan comic book which I read as a child long, long ago in a land far, far away.  Tarzan comic books had these little educational addendums which were supposed to educate the young readers about the real Africa that the Tarzan stories were based on.  This one talked about the monkey traps which were used to do just what the name suggested, capture monkeys.  The monkey trap was a hallowed-out gourd with a small opening.  Inside would be treats that monkeys really liked.  They would reach their paws into the opening and grasp the treats.  The opening was too small to retract their paws while they grasped the treat.  They would not be willing to let go of the reward and so they were trapped between wanting the treat and their freedom. 

Here is a picture of a monkey trap I found on line:

To me, that is a perfect metaphor for the challenge of spiritually letting go.  It seems to be human nature to hang on to beliefs and attitudes that are actually keeping us trapped in ways that do not let us live life as God intended.  These attitudes and beliefs are based on things that may have served us well at some point to survive in life.  They can and probably are based on fears which may have been valid at some point. However, they quite possibly may not be appropriate or necessary in life today.  We can react instinctively like that monkey and hold on for dear life to something that is imprisoning us.  However, if we use our God-given gift of reflection and discernment, we can take the risk and let go of the ideas and beliefs that are entrapping us. 

In no way is doing that easy.  Letting go does require faith.  It requires faith that God is with you and that the fear that if you do let go terrible things will not happen. 

Richard Rohr sums this up well:

Only when we accept our present condition can we set aside fear and discover the love and compassion that are our highest human endowments. And out of our compassion we deal justly with those about us. Not just on our good days, not just when it’s convenient, but everywhere and at all times we are free to act according to that which is highest in us. And in such action we find peace.  Richard Rohr April 4, 2019

Blessings on your journey.