Letting Go...

The following is an awesome quote from A.W. Tozer's book Pursuit of God. For context's sake, this section comes from a chapter called The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing - giving everything one is and everything one has to God to control and work out, rather than hanging on to it all for dear life...

"There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic. We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed."

Kinda along the same lines is a song by Jeremy Camp:
Gripping on so tight with the security I have inside Knowing what is right holding onto my pride
Letting go of the things I hold so dear Letting go of all my pain and all my fears

I went to lunch with a friend the other day. We got to talking about how surrendering/giving up to God isn't simply a matter of "dumping" everything; assuming that either what we want will never happen or that we're not supposed to listen for His voice directing us how to go forward. It's not a "black hole" where stuff goes in and nothing is done afterwards. Surrender is, yes, "giving up" but it's giving up our assumed right to control things - and trusting them instead to God Who has the right and the ability to actually handle it all. We can still listen for direction and go forward once we get it, but there's a lot more peace involved when we listen for God's direction rather than trying desperately to keep it all going on our own. Or clinging to it all and dealing with the problems that follow.
It's cool to learn these things, but it's still a challenge walking them out.