Of Possessions and White Knuckles

Dear long time, faithful Rubies in the Rough readers (should you happen to exist)- no, you're not having a deja vu. This is a re-post from waaay back when! Old post from the old blog while I wait for inspiration for a new post for the new blog. Got that? Good. Proceeding...

Lydia never thought of herself as an particularly possessive person.

Sounds like the corny beginning of a how to, self-help article doesn't it? But, it was true. Possessions were always way down there on the List of Lydia's Priorities. Or so I thought.

So when the Lord began to reveal to me that I was holding onto "things" too tightly, I almost laughed out loud.

"Me, Lord? But that's silly! You know that money means nothing to me!"

Well, guess what.

He wasn't talking about money.

No sirree.

Money isn't the only form of possession, as I later reluctantly pointed out to myself. How about friends? Family? Loved-ones in general? These were the "things" I was keeping an emotional and mental death grip on. Ouch.

"Let go of that and come follow Me." The very words of the Jesus I claimed to follow, and they burned in my mind. This was the very thing I thought I'd never have trouble with. But if I insist on keeping a firm hold on things, how am I ever to keep a firm hold on Christ? The only option is to let go of one to gain the other.

In her book Lies Women Believe , Nancy Leigh DeMoss addresses the following subtle lie that few of us would care to admit to: God is not really enough. She says,

"When it comes down to it, we don't believe that God's word is truly sufficient to deal with our problems...I need God's word plus these eight books from the Christian bookstore; I need God's word plus tapes and conferences and counselors. Sure I need God. But I need Him plus close friends; I need Him plus good health; I need Him plus a husband; I need Him plus children; I need Him plus a job that pays enough; I need Him plus a house with a microwave, a washer/drier, a garage, a fresh paint job..."

When I am clinging to the people in my life, am I not more or less saying that God isn't enough? And when a Christian says that God isn't enough, is that not an offensive testimony of a holy God to a watching world? This exert from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life seems to go hand in hand with what we just heard from Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Why don't people ask us about our hope, he asks?

"There is no doubt if we lived more like this [like Christ is more precious then life], the world would be more likely to consider whether Jesus is an all-satisfying Treasure. He would look like one. When was the last time someone asked you about "the reason for the hope that is in you"? That's what Peter said we should always be ready to give an answer for: "Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15) Why don't people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do. Our lives don't look like they are on the Calvary road, stripped down for sacrificial love, serving others with the sweet assurance that we don't need to be rewarded in this life... If we believed this more deeply, others might see the worth of God and find in Him their gladness."

Looking to anything other than Christ for our joy and satisfaction does not make much of Christ. Not only does it not make much of Christ, it actually makes Him look cheap and commonplace.

"He's good for some aspects of life," says my behavior, "But He's certainly not enough for all."

I stand horrified at the implications of this, my perceivably "small" sin: holding human relationships above my heavenly, all-consuming relationship. How could I ever bear to make my precious Savior look this way?

As I've discovered the hard way, releasing my emotional grip on people I love very much is painful. But to whom, or more accurately, Whom, am I releasing them? Only to a heavenly Father who loves us so very deeply, He sent His only Son to save us from eternal damnation. Wow. When was the last time you allowed that reality to actually sink in?

My times are in Thy hand;

My God, I wish them there;

My life, my friends, my soul, I leave

Entirely to Thy care.

My times are in Thy hand;

Why should I doubt or fear?

My Father's hand will never cause

His child a needless tear.

~William F. Lloyd

posted by Lydia