Thankfully, something began to change in me. God lead my husband and I out a very
unhealthy church and I began to see things a whole lot clearer. It is amazing what distance can do for a
person’s perspective. This whole idea of
‘my life is not my own’ began to change.
I realized that how I was seeing it was a little fucked up. Not totally wrong but not fully developed
either. I began to see that God did give
me my life. As a gift. To me.
No strings attached. Because isn’t
that what a gift is? Can you imagine
giving your kid a gift at Christmas and after they open it, you tell them that
they HAVE to give it back to you? What
kind a gift is that? It is not a gift at
all. And just as a parent wouldn’t
expect or demand that, neither does God.
He gives us each a life and lets US decide what to do with that
life. We can choose good things, healthy
things. We can choose bad things, unhealthy
things. The point is that we get to
choose… we are free.
There is a part about ‘my life is not my own’ that rings
true though. There is definitely a theme
throughout the scriptures of ‘yeilding to God’ and ‘letting go and trusting God’
and ‘losing your life to find it’ but it is not about becoming a drone or a
slave. It is a willingness to join
yourself with God. To be woven together
in this perfect unity with him. To be in
the place that we were always meant to be.
That is a place I want to be. But
it is something God offers us, not demands of us. And the only way I can give my life is if I truly
possess it. God wants me to want
it. And he is under no compulsion to
force me into anything.
And that brings us to today.
A day in which I will be
celebrating this life that God has freely given me. A day in which I can begin to ‘give’ myself
to God. And even though it may be a slow
process, with lots of bumps along the way, it is a sincere and honest one. And that makes me smile and fills me with
hope.