Why Letting Go is Beautiful and Necessary

It’s 6PM and 92 degrees outside as I write this post. I wanted to talk about autumn and falling leaves and letting go, but maybe summer and flip-flops and adventures are a better choice.

No. I think I’ll just pretend my air conditioner is blowing a cold north wind and my orange blossom, green iced tea is really warm mulled apple cider. You know, the whole mind over matter thing. Hang on while I grab my sweater …

Okay, where was I? Oh yes, autumn and falling leaves and …

Letting go.

Do you mind if I get a little geeky with some science right now? (My beautiful niece, Stephanie, would be so proud of me!) Check this out:

As autumn days turn colder and shorter, certain trees send a chemical signal to it’s leaves telling them it’s time to, well … leave. Once this message is received, cells called “abscission” cells begin to form at the base of every leaf stem on the tree. The word “abscission” has the same root word as scissors, meaning abscission cells are designed – like scissors, to cut the leaves from the tree.

On purpose.

Goodbye! Time to go! Get off me!

Without this process, leaves would remain on the tree where cold winter temperatures would freeze the water within their cells – thus killing them. And since living leaves produce food for the whole tree, dead leaves produce only one thing …

A dead tree.

So let me ask you something …

What are you holding onto – that seems necessary, but is killing your ability to grow?

Maybe, like an autumn leaf, your cargo’s usefulness is long spent and it’s time to let it go. It’s a frightening proposition for sure. To cut free something that’s been a part of you longer than you know or care. But think about this …

God designed these trees to willfully shed their nature-made coat, and stand undressed through the harsh, winter winds and storms.

A tree’s “nakedness” doesn’t happen just because a gust of wind rips its leaves away (though it helps some). No, it happens because the tree purposely cuts them off on its own!

Why?

So it can become MORE in the spring.

Could you and I be so brave as to cut off the dead weight of our life?

Not sure?

I get it. Letting go means exposure, vulnerability, and a healthy dose of uncertainty. It means “new things” and we rarely know where “new things” lead.

But God knows exactly what he’s asking when he says to, “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” (Hebrews 12:1) He IS the plan to our holiness. But in order to experience the full depth of all he has, we must let go. So a better, deeper, and more beautiful version of us can grow.

“Do not remember the things that have happened before. Do not think about the things of the past. See, I will do a new thing … I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” – Isaiah 43:18-19 NLV