Letting Go-- and Letting God

Luke 9:22-25

Alright. It is not much of a cross, but a little cross it is, nonetheless. The cable went out yesterday, and I lost my Internet connection. Not so much of a tragedy, you could certainly say. I can accept that missing the colossal battle in Olympic Figure Skating is not much of a hardship. But, missing my blog post about the significance of carrying our daily crosses is a tough one to bear. That said-- I'm back, and I'm sorry that I missed you.

Thursday's Gospel reading is extraordinary. In this passage, we read the most amazing prediction in all of human history. The Savior of the Universe predicts that he will suffer greatly, will be rejected, will be killed and will be raised from the dead on the third day. Wow. This is NOT what people expected to hear.

Even more shocking is what Jesus tells us about ourselves.

God, himself, in the second person of the Holy Trinity (more on this likely in another post) tells us in no uncertain terms that for the eternal life that comes only through him we must (1) deny ourselves, (2) take up our daily crosses, and (3) follow Him. This is a tall order.

However, Jesus gives us guidance when he says simply that we should forget the life that we know. We should give it up and let it go. We need to understand that although we live in the world that we are not of the world.

This concept requires almost a suspension of our very notion of reality. We need to understand that to live as God requires we must deny ourselves. Sadly, in our culture, denial is often-- in and of itself-- viewed perversely as a sacrilege. We must also embrace our cross-- we must see it as a gift (see post on suffering-- February 15).

And most importantly, we must follow God. This last one is often the hardest one for me. But, knowing that God has my very best interest at heart, I pray for the grace to hear Him and follow. I need to learn how to let go-- and let God.