control

Matthew 10:39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

This is one of the 4 verses God gave me 2 years ago as I walked into the adventure He drawn me into called downtown.

I've boiled this verse down to the thought "don't cling to your life"

I can tell you how many hundreds of times God has gently reminded me of this verse, or whispered that bullet to me - "don't cling to your life"

I was clinging to a lot of things I thought were important - things in my life that I took refuge in. And time & time again He would whisper, "don't cling to your life - don't cling to that thing you think is so important. Let it go, because I (as in God) have something else for you."

And just because I'm downtown doesn't mean this is the "destination" for me. This is just a part, a season in my journey & adventure with Him. I have to keep my heart & life open to whatever He has for me. I can't anymore cling to downtown than I could cling to anything else in my life as I moved toward downtown.

God dreamed a dream for our lives. It's far more amazing & scary than anything we could imagine or dare to dream. The trick to getting to live it is to let go of control of our lives. Easier said than done, but still key to God being able to actuate His dreams for us.

So, as I continue to walk this adventure with Him downtown, I reminded - don't cling to your life.

As we all live our lives, let's not cling to them. Change will come. God will introduce something new & different into our lives - probably something kinda scary & something we don't think we can do on our own. But as it says in the second half of verse 39, "if you give up your life for Me, you'll find (your life)."

I'm finding that life He dreamed for me. He's leading me into who know what? We'll see.

I've said all that to say this - I'm livin' the reality of what it means & what it's like if you "don't cling to your life."

Therefore, I can say with integrity, "don't cling to your life"

Let Him have complete control & go with the life He dreamed. It's worth it.