You’re holding on too tightly …

The warning comes as I listen to a sermon. Oddly enough, the sermon doesn’t have anything to do with the earthly. But my ears perk. Not because I don’t believe what I am hearing, but because the warning – it’s so … spot on.

The preacher’s voice wafts into my subconscious while God and I converse …

I know, Lord. I shouldn’t love anything more than You.

And what would you do if I took it? He asks.

I don’t answer. I feel rigid and stiff -  impossible to bend. And I want to hide under my seat, because the awful truth is that if He takes it away, I’ll be an emotional train wreck.

Now I hear Corrie ten Boom: “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.”

Everything.

Every thing?

He does give us all things to richly enjoy, doesn’t He? Houses, spouses, children, automobiles, food, jobs, friendships, good health … all such grace. Common grace to those who do not know Him. But of course we know everything He has given on this earth will eventually be taken. We do know this … right? Either we will leave it (and them), or it (and they) will leave us. Our cars will die. Parents, too.  We have no guarantee our children will outlive us. And if we leave first, we take nothing.

Nothing.

Naked we came. 

Naked we will go.

Why all of this clinging, then? Adhering to the temporal. The earthly. Our knuckles are white with displaced hope. We trust in and for the wrong things.

So how do we loosen the grip? How do I loosen the grip?

How did Job? I mean, if anyone ever had stuff to clench, he’s the guy. If he lived today, he’d be on the same level as Bill Gates or Sam Walton, only with a lot more kids. But when Satan accused, and the prying began, Job’s knuckles were loose and ready to give back. Pink with blood flow. He didn’t turn and say, “Ouch! Lemme go!” He turned and said “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  The only action prior to Job’s hallowed utterance was the robe tearing, head shaving, ground kissing, and Lord worshiping. The worshiping of the Lord who just permitted Satan’s brutal snatching.

How very opposite of my reaction. I did not robe tear, ground kiss, or head shave (okay, that’s not so bad). But neither did I fall down in worship when He asked me what I’d do if – when – the prying began.

So how did he do it? How did Job, without any hesitation, say with open palm, Here, Lord. It’s Yours anyway?

Job 1:1 says Job feared God and shunned evil. And again in verse 8, the Lord defends him even to Satan, saying he was blameless and upright, one who fears God and shuns evil.

When did he become the blameless, upright, God fearing man?

Before the prying.

That’s the secret. We must  first become blameless, upright, God fearing, evil shunners (if I can invent a word). Then, and only then will knuckle tension ease.

What a high calling Job had. That we have. And this calling … again, it begs the question … how? How will we ever be Jobs? Doesn’t Job almost sound like Christ Himself? Free of blame. Upright. Shunning all evil.

Philippians 1, verse 6 …

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Make no mistake. God has promised. He will complete the good work of making God fearing, evil shunners out of us. Our responsibility? To strive with Him. To love Him with all our soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:47). To work with Him. Willingly, purposefully fixing our eyes on the unseen, rather than the seen (2 Cor. 4:18).

Because those things that we can see, hold, touch …. they wither like the grass. Fall away like the flower.

But what endures? The Word of the Lord.

Forever.

So go ahead and clench the fist. But clench the Never Ending. The Unseen and Unchanging. Let go of the temporal, and hold on to God’s promise- filled, Almighty hand.

Seemingly painful. Without a doubt, profitable.

In the end … less painful.