Is It Time to Let Go?

Is 42:1-4, 6-7 / Acts 10:34-38 / Mt 3:13-17

A woman went to see a psychiatrist with an urgent request: "Doctor, you've got to do something about my husband. He thinks he's a refrigerator!"

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," said the shrink. "Lots of people have harmless delusions. It'll pass."

"But, doctor, you don't understand," insisted the woman. "He sleeps with his mouth open, and the little light keeps me awake!"

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It's hard to stay connected to reality! And sometimes it's very hard not to close our eyes to what's right in front of us. We see one of those hard moments in Sunday's Gospel. John the Baptist had spent his entire adult life on one single mission: Preparing the people for Jesus' coming. And then, Jesus came. John's work was over, and his new task was to fade into the shadows -- not easy for someone who'd been the equivalent of a rock star for so many years. But that's what John did: He let go of center stage and gave it to the Lord.

How was he able to do that? How did he avoid letting his ego get in the way? Because he'd understood from the beginning that his life's work wasn't about himself. It was about carrying God's gifts to God's people -- just as every wholesome life's work must be.

More often than we'd like, we face hard moments like the one John faced, when this or that part of our life's work is done and it's time to let go and move on. Every parent faces those moments of letting go -- again and again. And that's when they discover who their parenting was really about: Their children or themselves!

(The same is true of us at any transition moment in life. When the moment comes, we discover what we've really been about -- if we're willing to look!)

As our lives continue to unfold, the shape of the work to which God calls us changes, sometimes radically. What makes these transitions especially difficult is that usually we can't see what comes next. The fear, of course, is that it may be nothing -- perhaps the best part is already past.

So we cling to what we've been doing. And our life's work ceases to be about carrying God's gifts to those who need them; and it degenerates instead into mindless repetition -- with no purpose. It's rather like a gardener I once observed, week after week, carefully watering a big clay pot full of soil in which nothing had been planted for years!

At every stage of life, no matter how young or old we are, God has valuable work for us to do, and we have the gifts that need to be carried to someone. Trust that. Listen to God whispering to you through your gifts and through the circumstances of your daily life. He'll let you know when you're done in one spot, and where you're needed next. And rest assured, you'll always be needed, because you don't just carry God's gifts: When you're at your best, you ARE God's gift, and you are very much needed!