July 9

Beloved of Good Shepherd Church, 

Grace to you and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord!

The most important muscle for you to exercise is your letting go muscle. Followers of Jesus are called to empty-handedness, so that we are always ready to receive the gift of God’s love as it comes to us in our everyday lives through people, places, and things. We can’t receive the fullness of the gift if our hands and hearts are full of other stuff. We practice letting go so that we can drop everything at a moment’s notice. Eventually, after a lot of exercise, we might just go about empty handed all the time.

The church, therefore, is like a gym in which we work out our letting go muscle. When you come to worship you bring your grief and gratitude, your joy and your anger and let them go at the altar. When you participate in formation you let go of all the things you think you know in order that you might learn something surprising and new. When you join in an outreach activity you let go of self-centeredness so that you can serve the needs of a neighbor. 

Everything is something to let go of. On the spiritual journey your letting go muscle is your strongest asset, or it should be. 

Remember this always - God loves you, and I love you too!

Love is all, 

Hendree+