How to Let Go to Land on Solid Ground

We live life holding on, as tight as we can. But what if life is found in the letting go? In trusting that God is who He says He is. That God will sustain us as He promises He will.

Nothing moves faster than a toddler with something he’s not supposed to have. It’s really amazing. The same child that took 25 minutes to walk from the house to the car as they stopped to look at every. single. rock. suddenly develops superhuman speed.

Can we also talk about how their little fingers morph into vice grips? Another phenomenon.

And the strength of will! Determined to hold onto their treasure no matter what. It could be a bug, it could be a Starbucks candy wrapper, but they are not letting go, no matter how we try to be the voice of reason. Even if it could hurt them. Even if the person they trust most is saying let go. At this point they use every toddler’s favorite two words.

“NO! MINE!”

Is it too early to declare nap time?

How often are we like toddlers, our figurative fingers in a vice grip, holding onto things, people, careers – even if they are harmful to us, even if those we trust most are pleading with us to let go.

A few years ago, I taught a Sunday School class about the idols in our lives. In class, the high schoolers were ready to trust God and let go of their idols. But during the week I watched as they held onto volatile relationships, as they chased after perfect grades, and found their worth in the approval of others.

I was frustrated with them until I looked at my own life. It’s hard to let go. Really hard.

In fact, it’s impossible to let go when we are in survival mode, and that is where many of us are.  We won’t let go when we feel like this one thing is keeping us afloat in the chaos. We won’t let go when that feels like it will be a total free fall.

And that is scary. Not roller coaster scary, because there we have bars to hold onto and we know that ride will eventually end. I’m talking real-life scary. Scary in a “I don’t know what will happen” way.

But what if it only seems scary?

The enemy of our soul keeps us in the dark, telling us that if we let go of this one thing, we will be alone in the dark, abandoned, hopeless, lost forever. He paints the picture of a yawning abyss waiting to swallow us up. He wants to keep us trapped in the dark.

Truth is like turning on lights in the darkness and discovering that the yawning abyss isn’t even real. Truth sets us on the path to life, light, and freedom.

Unfurling our fingers and letting go is a progression. We won’t let go of that one thing until we are convinced that God will take care of us better than that one thing ever could. We won’t be convinced of that until we trust Him. And we won’t trust Him until we know Him. We can’t know Him without spending time in His Word. And His Word is where the solid ground is.

God leans toward us through His Word. In Psalm 55:22, He says cast your burden on me, and I will sustain you.

Ready for rock solid truth?

The word for cast in this verse is to throw, to fling, to hurl. In other words, to get it as far away as fast as possible.

And where are we hurling our burden, our cares? The word God uses in this verse is Yahweh, His personal name.

The personal request of handing over our burdens is made by our personal God. The God who created everything, who keeps planets spinning and molecules together, but who is also so personal that He asks us to hand over our burdens to Him.

When we throw that one thing to Him, our hand is then empty. But there’s no free fall, because in the same breath God promises to give us what we need.

How does He know what we need? Because He knows us.

Psalm 56:8 says He catches our tears. Our tears don’t run down our cheeks and disappear. The idea is that He collects them and intervenes on our behalf. He sees. He cares. He acts.

See the beautiful progression? He cares for us and will give us what we truly need for our mind, body and soul. He bends toward us. He hears our sobs, He feels our pain, He catches our tears, and He draws us in toward Himself.

The enemy wants us to believe that we are alone, abandoned, hopeless. But we are none of those things. Jesus has come to be with us, so we are never alone. He walks beside us, so we are not abandoned. He is our hope, so we are never without hope.

Now that our hands are empty, we can hold tightly onto Him and stand on solid ground.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll find more examples of connecting with Christ in your everyday life in my devotional.

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When Christmas is Difficult

What do we do when the most wonderful time of the year doesn’t feel so wonderful?  

I have found that holidays seem to amplify daily struggles. It may be that we are busier than usual, but I think it’s also because we have expectations of happiness, peace, and perfection – standards that we don’t require our every-day lives to meet. 

We have these hopes that just for a moment life will balance in perfect peace and harmony, you know, like they do in the Hallmark Christmas movies. We want our meals to look Instagram perfect, and our Christmas craft projects to make it on Pintrest, and not be a Pintrest fail. 

So with all this pressure, it’s not surprising that we struggle during the holidays. 

What’s your top holiday struggle? 

My biggest struggle at Christmas is remembering why we are celebrating and how that connects to my every-day life.

To be honest, it gets lost under the mad dash of secret Santa presents, real presents, school programs, parties, decorating, luncheons, get-togethers, and the pressure to somehow stay in budget. (Why is there math in Christmas?)

My joy gets lost in the busyness and I have trouble remembering that Christmas really is about Jesus coming, experiencing life in this broken world, and making a way for us to be in relationship with God. 

God opened the folds of time and stepped into our world as one of us.  It’s unheard of. It’s mind-blowing. And yet, even as I’m writing this, it feels far away. 

But far away was the last thing on Jesus’ mind. 

He came to be with us.  

We have an enemy that works overtime to make us feel isolated, misunderstood, abandoned. Who knows that when we feel alone and vulnerable, we are more apt to listen to his lies.

We were made for connection and intimacy, so when we feel alone it is easy for our hearts to make this false conclusion: I am not known, therefore I am not loved.  

Jesus is with us, out of love for us, to draw us into relationship with Him. In Jesus we are known, loved, connected—the very things we were created to experience.

So when Christmas is difficult, breathe in deep, look at the sweet baby in the manger and speak this beautiful truth: I am loved. I am not alone.

He came for you, my friend.

The Tiny Light that Lit the World

Light broke through deepest darkness when God put on flesh and stepped into our world.

He came as a tiny light, wrapped in the most vulnerable package.  

He came in a way that we could receive Him.  He came so that we could know Him and know the joy of walking through life with Him.  

Read more about the Light of Christmas here: Those Walking in Darkness Need the Light – Erin Ulerich 

We Were Made to Hear His Voice

When our older daughter was just over a year old, she began having ear infections. We took her to the doctor for a hearing assessment. I held her on my lap in a room that had rectangular speakers on different sides of the room. She was supposed to turn toward the appropriate speaker when she heard her name being called. 

“Margaret” the voice boomed through a speaker on the left side of the room. She did not respond. 

“Margaret” the voice boomed again, on the right side of the room. Still, no response. 

Panic welled up inside me She’s going to fail this test! I’m a horrible mother! How could I not know she couldn’t hear! Until one clear thought pushed through. 

“Wait!” I yelled toward the speakers. “We call her Maggie. She doesn’t know the name Margaret.” 

The test went quite smoothly after that. 

We were made to hear God’s voice, but sometimes we don’t hear His voice because we don’t recognize the name He is calling us. 

Beloved. Loved. Precious One. Friend. 

We expect Him to use words like: Mistake. Failure. Oh, it’s you again. 

Sometimes we don’t hear His voice because we haven’t really met Him.  

The best introduction is His Word because that is the place where who God is and who we are can be clearly seen. His Word is more than a book. It is God’s words of, “This is who I am, this is how much I love you, and this is what I’ve made you for.” 

Through His Word we find this beautiful truth. 

We are made by God. We are loved by God. We were made to hear His voice so that we can know Him. 

So, what does His voice sound like? When we hear His voice, we can be sure it is His when: 

There is love and conviction, not condemnation and guilt. 

When we keep things in the darkness, fear and shame grow and overrun us with thoughts like, “God would never forgive me.” These thoughts keep us in the darkness, away from God. These thoughts are from the enemy of our soul who wants to distort our perception of God—His character, His love, His actions. The enemy constantly throws up smoke and mirrors and keeps us off balance. 

His voice is kind and constant, even when He is dealing with our sin. He will not sweep our sin under the rug or pretend that it does not matter. He will bring it out into the open to deal with it because He sees our misery. 

“God doesn’t point out our sin to condemn us. God’s purpose in lovingly revealing our sin is to encourage us to acknowledge it and confess it so He can change us. The Enemy’s voice brings condemnation. You will know condemnation because it will bring guilt and offer no clear means of relief. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit brings conviction that always provides a road map out and away from a specific sin. His aim is always to lovingly steer us in the direction of His grace.”  (Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When God Speaks by Priscilla Shirer) 

When God speaks to us His words will not heap judgment on us. He reveals our sins to lead us to repentance, but this revelation is buffered with the hope of His grace, love, and another chance. He has already undergone the punishment for our sin once and for all on the cross. 

His voice points to His character. It points us back to Himself. 

“One of God’s greatest desires is to make Himself known to us and lead us into a more intimate relationship with Him… He wants us to know Him.” (Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When God Speaks by Priscilla Shirer) 

The place to get to know God is in the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, His love, His desire for relationship, and His dealing with sin to restore relationship are described on every page. 

If we were made to hear His voice, why don’t we? What keeps us from hearing His voice? There are three main reasons for this: 

1. Noise. Our lives are noisy. Our phones ding with every email, text, and reminder. TVs are always on with some new drama (real or fiction) unfolding. There is always something to do, somewhere to go, someone to talk to. 

2. Locked elbows. Deep down we are afraid to let God get too close, afraid that knowing Him might mean changing things in our lives that need changing. We say, “I want to know you,” but we keep our elbows locked and our hearts closed so that He stays at a safe distance. I’ve been there, and I’m so thankful that God was not content being on the outer edge of my life. He patiently drew me closer through His love and grace. 

3. Not recognizing our name. Like Maggie’s hearing test, we miss hearing his voice because we don’t recognize the name He is tenderly calling us. 

“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me.” (Psalm 42:8) 

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness;  he will quiet you by his love;                                                
he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) 

When was the last time you pictured God singing over you with joyful songs? 

You bring Him joy. You bring a smile to the face of God. 

His voice is not in the media storm of the day. His voice is not in the rushing news feeds on our screens. His voice, clear, constant, and quiet, is in His Word. The more we read His Word, the more clearly we will hear His voice. 

-Excerpt from In Unexpected Ways: Christmas in Everyday Life

Jesus Is With Us in Our Joy and Pain 

God’s desire from the beginning has been fellowship. To be with us. 

God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Face to face. When sin entered the world, that relationship was broken, but God’s desire did not change. Throughout the Old Testament His heart cry is repeated, “I will be their God and they will be my people.” 

This desire is also found in the language surrounding the reason God offers us salvation through relationship with Him, that “they will see his face.” (Revelation 22:4) 

That is the goal. Connection. Intimacy. God created each one of us with the need for connection, the need to know and be known by Him. 

And then he opened the folds of time and stepped into our world as one of us. Jesus, Emmanuel, which means God with us. 

With us. Not watching from a distance. Not a kind but powerless force hovering around us. With us, experiencing life in this broken world. 

Jesus knows the pull of this world on our heart. He experienced every emotion that we have felt or will ever feel. And he has experienced one emotion that we will never experience—abandonment by God. 

We often feel alone; I am not discounting that. But the reality is that God has promised to be with us and to never forsake us. Jesus willingly experienced complete abandonment on the cross to offer us peace with God. 

 Why is God being with us important? What difference does it make? 

We have an enemy that works overtime to make us feel isolated, misunderstood, abandoned. He knows that when we feel alone and vulnerable, we are more apt to listen to his lies. We were made for connection and intimacy, so when we feel alone it is easy for our hearts to make this false conclusion: I am not known, therefore I am not loved. 

Jesus is with us, out of love for us, to draw us into relationship with Him. In Jesus we are known, loved, connected—the very things we were created to experience. 

Because Jesus experienced life in our skin, He is with us in our joy and in our pain. 

Pain is part of living in this broken world. We feel pain on many different levels, and we usually work hard to avoid pain on every level. We avoid it by staying busy, numbing out on Netflix, eating, not eating, drinking alcohol, shopping, working, working out … the list is endless. We want to avoid pain so much that we even take good things and twist them to keep numb instead of stopping and looking our pain in the eye. 

And the main problem with all the numbing that we do is this truth: We were not made to live life numb. We were made to push through the fear, look our pain square in the eye, and live life in full. 

Does that sound scary? You bet. 

But we don’t do it alone. 

Jesus stands with us when we face our pain. He guides us into healthy ways of living and thinking and acting. His resources are not limited, and He will provide what we need to face our pain. 

Jesus stepped from the perfection of heaven into the broken chaos of this world to walk with us. Our God is with us every step of the way. 

– Excerpt from In Unexpected Ways: Christmas in Everyday Life

We Are Not Alone in Our Battles 

Jesus became one of us and was tempted in every way we are tempted. He fought the same battles waging inside of us and won. Not to gloat over us, but to say, “I know the battle. Come closer and find your strength in Me. Come and receive forgiveness. Take My hand and I will fill you with hope. Come to the throne of grace in your time of need, with confidence, to find help.” 

Jesus is with us, so we are not alone. He gives us power to fight temptation, so we can say no to sin. He offers forgiveness when we fail and gives us strength to get back up on our feet and walk beside Him.  

– Excerpt from In Unexpected Ways: Christmas in Everyday Life

Even When We Feel Helpless, We Are Not Alone 

I tried to keep conversation light to mask my own worry. Anderson played a board game nearby with a friend. Maggie watched Frozen with a group of girls huddled around a tablet screen. But Ellen stayed by my side and asked the tough questions. 

“Is the tornado close?” she whispered. I put my arm around her as we leaned against the wall. “It’s about 10 minutes away. You don’t have to worry. We are in a safe place. We are in the safest place we can be.” 

“Will it hit us?” she asked. 

“I don’t know, sweetie, but we are in a safe place if it does.” 

“Mama, do people die in tornados?” 

In the 25 zillion parenting books I have read, not a single book had a chapter on Speaking Truth During Tornados. I was not going to lie to my child, and yet I didn’t want to multiply her fears. 

“Sometimes that happens, sweetheart. But we are in the safest place we can be right now.” I kept using the word “safe” hoping it would make her feel safe. 

The wind howled. The rain pelted. And my husband walked past us, a grim look on his face. Ellen and I watched as he wrapped an extension cord around the handles of the double doors at the end of the hallway – the doors that could fly open if a tornado hit. 

I felt the muscles tighten in Ellen’s little body. 

“Are we going to die?” she whispered, her voice trembling in my ear. 

Fear. Pure fear. 

These circumstances were out of my control, and my child knew it. She immediately felt alone and helpless, and I could identify with that. It is not unusual to feel alone when we feel helpless. 

God knows what it is like to live in this broken world. He knows that we will face circumstances that we can’t change or control. And He knows we need Him to remind us that we are not alone. 

”Fear not, for I am with you.” (Isaiah 41:10) 

His Word gives us assurance of His presence. We are not alone, because He is with us. 

I did not want my child to feel alone, because we were not alone or abandoned. 

The truth was that the tornado could hit. We could be injured or die. And God would still be good. He would still use it in our lives for something beautiful. 

But how could I explain this to my 6-year-old who was gripped with fear, when I don’t even fully understand it myself? I have seen God bring beauty from terrible things in my life. I have seen Him work in people’s hearts through the most difficult and horrible circumstances. I don’t understand it, but I trust His hand. 

I pulled Ellen into my lap, held her, and said, “I’m not sure what will happen. But I know that God will do what is best, and I trust Him.” 

The tornado went over us without touching down and Ellen and I whispered prayers of thankfulness for His protection. 

God did protect us that day. But even if He had allowed the tornado to hit, it wouldn’t have been because He took His hand away from us. As His children, we are secure in the palm of His hand. He is with us. 

I am still not sure how to convey this complicated truth to my children. Maybe it’s enough to teach them to trust Him, because He is with us, even when we are sitting in the dark. 

– Excerpt from In Unexpected Ways: Christmas in Everyday Life

White Water Rafting & Christmas

The sounds of rushing water grew louder as we approached the turn in the river.  

I tightened my grip on the t-handle of my paddle nervously. 

“Listen to my commands.” our guide reminded us. 

We plunged into the raging waters. 

“Forward 2!” 

There was splashing water, rocks on every side, and no time to look around. My eyes were on my paddle as I listened intently for the guide’s commands. 

After making it through, we raised our oars in a group high-five, adrenaline and relief coursing through us.  

But there was no time to relax; our guide was already preparing us for the next set of rapids and the commands he would use. He also told us what to do if we fell out of our raft. He wanted us to be prepared, no matter what happened. 

We appreciated the fact that he talked us through each rapid before we got to it. No one doubted him or questioned him. We followed his instructions. 

Why did our entire raft follow our guide? Was it because he was a nice guy? Or because he made us laugh? What made us trust him to get us through all the different types of rapids on this river?  

He had been down these rapids before. He knew what to do to make it through safely. And he was in the raft with us, with each rock we got stuck on, each wave that knocked us sideways. He was with us, guiding us through each moment. 

And that reminds me of Christmas.  

It is a perfect picture of how Jesus is with us in every moment of every day. In the calm moments before the rapid, in the middle of the chaos, and afterwards, even if we fall out of the raft. He isn’t shouting commands at us, though. We have His Words in the Bible and those words will guide us if we focus on them.  

Like the guide and the rapids, Jesus walked through this world. He has experienced the things you and I are experiencing. And He did that so He could guide and encourage us in every moment of our days, right here in 2022. 

 Our rafting guide never had to remind us that he was with us in the raft. We were very aware of our dependency on him.  

But remembering that Jesus is with us and responding to life like He is with us takes time. Our hearts are quick to forget, especially when we feel like we are in control. As we get to know God and read what He says in His Word, we become aware of our dependency on Him in the rapids and the calm. 

And better yet, He is a guide that will never fail us. We can trust Him.  

The Psalms are a great place to begin seeing our dependence on God. “David kept his mind so intently fixed upon the providence of God, as to be fully persuaded, that whenever any difficulty of distress should befall him, God would be always at hand to assist him.” (Martin Luther) 

We can also focus on God’s care and provision for us so much that we become convinced that He is always with us and working on our behalf. 

This is Christmas in everyday life.

Searching for God’s Fingerprints in Everyday Life

If you could be like any detective, who would it be?

Would you be Maxwell Smart from the TV series Get Smart? He had plenty of gadgets, was sometimes distracted by his gadgets, was bumbling and clueless at times, but eventually got the bad guy in the end. 
 
Or would you prefer to be like Sherlock Holmes? Stealthy, logical, highly intelligent, a master at finding hidden clues.  

If I were to choose a detective that is most like me, I would choose a certain female detective who is well known by the 4 and below age group.

Dora the Explorer.

Other than the fact that she is animated, and Hispanic, and a child, we have lots in common. We both like to sing. We both like backpacks. Neither of us can read a map. But mainly, it’s the fact that in each episode the clues are right in front of her and she still needs help from the audience.

Yep. That’s definitely me.  
 
Last week I encouraged you to look for God’s fingerprints in your life – evidence that He is with you in every moment and in every situation.  

Looking for God’s fingerprints in our everyday lives is a skill to be learned. And once we get the hang of it, we will discover, like Dora, that His fingerprints have been right in front of us all along.  

Why is this important?  
 
If we learn to see His fingerprints in the moments of our days, we will begin to believe that we are not alone. And believing that we are not alone changes the way we see life.


It’s easy to begin.  We can start with a simple prayer: God, help me to see You in my everyday life. Open my eyes and help me see that I am not alone. 
 

I created a place to list the ways you see His fingerprints in your everyday life. Writing down helps us remember. It also gives us a record to go back and look at on the days when we are discouraged or weighed down.   

Where can I see His fingerprints, you might ask. Where is the evidence that He is with me?

  1. His kindness is evident through the simple, good things that all men enjoy: the rain, the beauty of a sunrise, a stranger’s smile. Happiness, goodness, celebration.

 These things are not reserved only for those who trust God, but are given to all people, even those who are enemies of God. He is patient and merciful towards those who reject Him. 

2.The way He restrains evil and sin in our world. As crazy as things are, they would be even worse if He did not hold back the tide of sin and evil.

3. The way God gives all people the ability to function within a society or in community: to care for one another and to show love and compassion to each other. The fact that we understand innately that some things are good and some things are evil and harmful is evidence that He is with us. 

When we acknowledge that God concerns Himself with every aspect of life we will see Him working in all aspects of our life. 

God, help me to see You in my everyday life. Open my eyes and help me see that I am not alone. 
 

I’d love to know the ways God answers this simple prayer in your life. Share about it on social media and use #Christmasineverydaylife so you can encourage others.