Get a Grip!!

I had tried it once before and described the experience as the closest that I ever came to dying, yet here I was doing it again- riding the Tower of Terror at Disney World!!  In this ride the park goer is seated  in a large elevator car and makes several free falls in an elevator shaft.

Confident that the belt across my lap was hardly sufficient to keep me in my seat and thus from what appeared to be obvious death, I began to tightly grip the the small handles on my right and left.  As I finally walked off the ride my throat was sore from screaming and my  palms and knuckles were hurting from holding on so tightly!!   Rubbing my hands to help them recover from the death grip that I had while on the ride  my mind went back to something else. 

How different my grip had been  from that of the baby  I had seen in my office a few days earlier.  As I talked to him he took his little hand and grabbed my pinkie finger with a grip that was so gentle.

  As I  thought about this I knew what God was trying to show me.  An infant holds on  much more loosely than we do as an adult.  Not only is our grip tighter but we also hold on to more things.  We hold tightly to our relationships,  our goals, our past (dreams, failures and hurts), wrong ideas or beliefs ( it is amazing how Satan can mess up our thinking).  We hold on to our ideas or dreams of the future.  Sometimes we just hold on to our "stuff".

Why do we hold on so tightly?  We are afraid- afraid of loosing that valued relationship , afraid that we won't achieve all we had dreamed, afraid that we won't keep up with the Jones family, afraid of change or afraid that we will be alone.  Perhaps it is a misplaced sense of value.  Have we somewhere along the line started to think that our value is based on the number of our possessions?   Have we stopped placing value on the things that God values?  Do we care more about what others think than what God says?

Perhaps there is something else (it is something that we would never admit to others)-we don't trust God.  Even though we may never speak those words, if we are holding on too tightly, then it is likely that we have an issue in this area.  

Much of what we hold on to are blessings or provisions from God.  I am reminded of  God's provision for the children of Israel. Moses told the people that each day when the manna had fallen they were to collect only what they needed for that day (with the exception of the sixth day).  However, if they hoarded it for the future that it would always spoil. (Ex 16:19-20).  The proper use of the manna was actually a test of their obedience and their trust in Him.  How tightly are we holding on to His provisions instead of Him.

I recently heard Chris Gardner speak.  You may be familiar with his story which is told in the book and the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness".  Through a series of events he and his 14 month old son found themselves homeless.  His story is one of struggle and his rise from what seemed a hopeless situation to the owner of a prominent stock brokerage firm. While he was homeless Chris  and his son carried all their possessions with them ALL  the time. Chris eventually became gainfully employed and was able to rent a small house.  The first morning they were leaving their home, his son, accustomed to carrying all their possessions with them each day, told him they were forgetting to bring their clothes and other items.  Chris told him, "We don't have to carry our stuff anymore. We have a key."  According to Chris that day they were able to skip to the train station without the burden they had once carried.

How much stuff do we carry around with us every day without even being aware?  All these things that we have a grip on will be gone one day  They won't matter!!

"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."  1 John 2:17

What we are holding on to is what we value.   Instead of holding on so tightly to all those things we mentioned that only serve to burden us  --we need to take hold of the only One that matters!!!