Good Monday Morning to this last Monday of 2019<\/p>\n
We’re about to let of go of 2019 … some thoughts to letting go.<\/p>\n
Letting go is incredibly difficult. No matter if we cling to worries about the future, or if we keep replaying the mistakes of the past it can be quite challenging when you have difficulties to move on. The attempt to hold on to the things that were familiar to us can limit our capability to experience the present moment. Yet, life is all about continuous change, no matter how hard we try to keep things as they are, we will sooner or later be confronted with relentless changes, whether we like it or not, especially as we open ourselves to new possibilities.<\/p>\n
In the Bible there are quite a lot of stories of letting-go:<\/p>\n
Mary and Joseph are asked to let go of their son Jesus.
\nJonah is asked to let go of his hatred for the Ninevites.
\nSarah is saddened and angry, she lets go of Abraham.
\nPharaoh is asked to let go of the Israelites.
\nEsau is asked to let go of his inheritance.
\nSaul is asked to let go of his throne and his power.
\nDavid is made to let go of his son he fathered with Bathsheba.
\nPaul is asked to let go of his prejudice and hatred.
\nAbraham is asked to let go of Isaac.<\/p>\n
Story 1<\/strong> The second man was asked about his sacks. He replied, \u201cIn the front sack are all the good things I\u2019ve done. I like to see them, so quite often I take them out to show them off to people. The sack in the back? I keep all my mistakes in there and carry them all the time. Sure they\u2019re heavy. They slow me down, but you know, for some reason, I can\u2019t put them down.\u201d<\/p>\n When the third man was asked about his sacks, he answered,\u00a0\u201cThe sack in front is great. There I keep all the positive thoughts I have about people, all the blessings I\u2019ve experienced, all the great things other people have done for me. The weight isn\u2019t a problem. The sack is like sails of a ship. It keeps me going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sack on my back is empty. There\u2019s nothing in it. I cut a big hole in its bottom. In there I put all the bad things that I can think about myself or hear about others. They go in one end and out the other, so I\u2019m not carrying around any extra weight at all.\u201d <\/i>What are you carrying in your sacks from 2019 as you journey and transition towards 2020?<\/p>\n Who do you identify with? The most sympathetic is the one who remembers all the blessings while acknowledging and letting go of negativity and judgment toward self and others?<\/p>\n If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself. Sometimes the hardest part isn\u2019t letting go but rather learning to start over. Story 2<\/strong> In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said,\u00a0\u201cSir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The elder monk answered, \u201cyes, brother\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n Then the younger monk asks again,\u00a0\u201cbut then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside ?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The elder monk smiled at him and told him\u00a0\u201d I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Paul put it this way in Hebrews 12.1 Wishing you a blessed transition and crossover from 2019 to 2020.<\/p>\n Philemon<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good Monday Morning to this last Monday of 2019 We’re about to let of go of 2019 … some thoughts to letting go. Letting go is incredibly difficult. No matter if we cling to worries about the future, or if we keep replaying the mistakes of the past it can be quite challenging when you … <\/p>\n
\nOnce upon a time, there were three men. Each man had two sacks, one tied in front of his neck and the other tied on his back. When the first man was asked what was in his sacks, he said, \u201cIn the sack on my back are all the good things friends and family have done. That way they\u2019re hidden from view. In the front sack are all the bad things that have happened to me. Every now and then I stop, open the front sack, take the things out, examine them, and think about them.\u201d\u00a0Because he stopped so much to concentrate on all the bad stuff, he really didn\u2019t make much progress in life.<\/p>\n
\nSource |\u00a0H. <\/a>Norman Wright,\u00a0The Perfect Catch<\/p>\n
\nHenry Ford<\/p>\n
\nNicole Sobon<\/p>\n
\nTwo monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the roadsides. At one place a woman was standing unable to walk across because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.<\/p>\n
\nSo since we stand surrounded by\u00a0all those who have gone before,<\/i> an enormous cloud of witnesses, let us drop every extra weight, everything that clings to us and slackens our pace,<\/i> and let us run with endurance the long race set before us. <\/span>We may feel alone, but we aren\u2019t. We are surrounded by an army of witnesses. They have run the race of faith and finished well. It is now our turn. We <\/span>stay focused on Jesus (a master in letting go), who designed and perfected our faith.<\/span><\/p>\n