Holding On and Letting Go

What are you holding on to today?  I'm asking this question because I've realized that sometimes we desperately hold on to things that are no longer serving our best interest - sometimes they never did. 

When it comes to losing weight and getting healthy, many of us struggle to release old patterns of eating.  We struggle and want to hold on to our favorite foods, even when those foods and our relationship to them landed us in an unhealthy BMI range, perhaps even contributing to illness and disease.  When we struggle to let go of what is no longer working for us, we may end up going off plan repeatedly.  We hang on to those old things and look at them as forbidden fruit; we feel deprived because we can't have the very things that got us here in the first place.

In Beth Moore's Bible study, "Breaking Free," one of the things she said that really resonated with me is that "whatever we give up is only to free our hands so we can receive all God has for us."  We can't receive something new if our hands are full of old stuff.

I have a picture in mind right now of hands that are tightly gripped around something old and rotting, fingertips white because the grip is so tight.  Within reach is something new and beautiful, but to take that new thing into the hand, the old will first have to be released.  The problem is that the old, while rotting, is familiar - it fits in the hand and the hand is warm from holding it for so long.  Letting go of the old thing means that, for a split second, the hand will be empty and cold.  It's uncertain how the new thing will fit and feel in the hand, so even though it looks beautiful and most desirable, the idea of actually having that in hand is pretty scary.

Some of us have struggled with being overweight or obese for a long time.  We hate how we look and feel, and part of us really wants to reach out and claim the healthy body and new life that is within our reach.  Before we can do that, we have to let go of the old, rotting habits.  Letting go of them isn't deprivation - it's freedom.  It doesn't feel like that at first because those habits have become so comfortable and warm in our hands.  But once we're willing to recognize them for what they are, things that are keeping us in a place we don't want to be, and once we're willing to loosen our grip and let them go, we are able to receive something far better.

It's not easy!  I wish it was, but it's not.  But it's worth it.  Shift your eyes from what you're hanging on to and really focus on what is is that you want.  Shift your focus, then choose wisely :-)