Letting God be God

“Faith and repentance mean letting God be God also in our actions and being obedient to him precisely in our deeds”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Except taken from the Berlin Papers 1932-1933

(image of a single remaining leaf on the tree we had “removed” this past week / Julie Cook / 2013)

Letting God be God is often one of the most difficult tasks we all face at some point or other in our lives. I know most personally that this is one issue which I most often face as I tend to be rather headstrong, often feeling the need to “take over” the situation or task in which I have asked for God’s very help.

I like to think this little tendency of mine is due, in large part, to the teacher in me—as the need to be the one in the room who is facilitating and leading comes rather natural. The person who directs and oversees the group. The person who is responsible for the lives entrusted to one’s care. With that responsibility comes the need to guide and care for. . .

Not surprisingly, when I take back whatever task I’ve attempted leaving in God’s hands, the results are most often a disastrous mess—I allow myself to get worked up into a terrible dither with a soaring stress level, when I could have simply “let go, in order to let God”–resting in the knowledge that He’s in charge, that “He’s got this” —-whatever the “this” may be.

Have you ever been in the midst of some situation which seems to suck the very life out of you as your time and energy is totally consumed and tied up in and with this particular issue? You are at your wits end both emotionally and physically. You feel as if you’ve done all you can do and yet things are no better than they were—when suddenly, thankfully, someone else steps up— someone with a fresh perspective who is full of energy—who is ready to give the issue a go as you find yourself reluctantly acquiescing, yielding to the new strength this person possesses which is what you lost long ago—you finally let go, sigh, and fall back. . .thankful it is no longer in your hands. . .?

It never has to get to that point.

If only we, you, I could learn to let God be God. . .

To let go, to be obedient in both our actions and in our deeds. A life long quest that seems to come easily to others than it has to me I must sadly report. But the glory of it all is that it is never too late, time has not run out, there is still time to yield, to turn, to begin the steps towards obedience.

But of course you can still hang on if you prefer, fighting the losing battle, being headstrong and defiant. If that is what you want you may certainly continue carrying the burden. . .but I would beg to ask “how’s that working for you?’ Are you being successful? How are the lives of the people around you being affected? Are you miserable with that miserableness pouring out to the lives around you? Sounds all rather toxic to me.

Learning to yield to God doesn’t mean that the trials won’t come as the obstacles to cross will still be there and the challenges will still arise—but the glory is that you, that I, are no longer alone. There is One who is greater as He sees the big picture, not your, not mine, micro image of the issue at hand but rather the entire issue from start to finish.

It can be such a relief if only you, if only I, let Him do what He does best—being Father, being God—I must constantly remind myself that God is the Creator and I am but the created. He’s got this—-I can thankfully let go. . .

Here is to walking towards obedience and towards a life of allowing, yes allowing, God, to thankfully be God. It is all a matter of our “allowing” as He will not demand and/ or take—He is indeed a gentleman, He will not take over unless we allow Him to.

Are you willing yet to allow Him to be God or do you still want to try your hand at that? I’m personally ready for a little help.