Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Worship with us on Easter Sunday-The Resurrection of Our Lord
Emmanuel Lutheran-10:15 am
Alleluia! He is Risen

LETTING GO OR GIVING UP? By Karen Minnich-Sadler
It’s hard for me to figure out sometimes when I’m letting go of something and when I’m giving up. Letting go can be incredibly freeing, like when I release something from my life that’s been weighing me down. Often, though, I want to let go of something quickly, before it has the chance to teach me what I need to know.

If I release something too quickly in order to avoid facing it and working through it, that—to me—is the same as giving up. I can’t learn from the experience if I push it away. At the same time, I can’t hold onto something if the time is right for letting go. Whatever I decide, I want to be certain in my soul it’s the right choice to make.

Letting go can make me feel guilty and giving up as though I’ve failed. Either way, if I’m not clear about why I do what I do, I’ll lose energy. The only way through these myriad emotions is to seek the grace of clarity and trust I’m not in the process alone. I’ll be shown what I need to know when it’s time.

Often I want to hold onto something because releasing it feels as though I’m not being responsible. This usually has to do with carrying burdens that aren’t mine to bear, when I’m trying to do for someone else what they need to do for themselves. Seen from another perspective, I might not want to let go because it means losing control of a person or situation. It means I must live with the discomfort of uncertainty.

This is exactly why I need to release the person or situation to God and allow that person to walk their own path. This is when letting go acknowledges the reality that no one can walk another’s path for them. We’re not God and we don’t know the direction their story should take.

We need to lift our choice up to the Light of God and trust that at some point, we’ll know the right answer. Like all of life, it’s process.

ACCEPTING ALL OF LIFE by Karen Minnich-Sadler
In the movie, The Last Airbender, the young boy who’ll become the means of uniting and healing warring nations, has lessons of the spirit to learn. He can’t learn them until he faces his inner self. He must acknowledge the grief he carries and his responsibility for a choice he made that brought harm to people he loved. He needs to learn acceptance so he can face his emotions with honesty.

I’ve been learning this lesson, too. When I think of some of the choices I made and some I didn’t make but should have, I find it hard to forgive myself. Just recently, though, an insight was given me: I must love all of my life—not just parts of it—for each decision shaped me, made me wiser and more compassionate. Even the choices I regret were a means to spiritual growth.

I must accept every part of every experience whether I liked it or not: what others did to me, what I did to others, what I’ve done to myself. It is all a mixture of temporary scenarios, giving me the opportunity to experience and grow. None of these experiences are permanent and none have the power to harm my soul. It’s the human me who carries regrets, grief and anger.

With God, every day is being made new and me along with it. The truth is, I’m not a frightened child; I’m a powerful spiritual being. Much of that power is hidden in this earth experience, but this I do know: what is of the spirit is power for good and only ever used for purposes of grace.

I don’t need others to understand this in order to feel whole and complete. Whatever frees me from the past, from senseless guilt or bitterness, also frees me from suffering. The more I’m freed from suffering, the more I can manifest God’s healing grace in this world. If I’ve learned the lessons of the journey and they changed me and made me more compassionate, then this is all I’ve ever needed from the journey.