Dandelion

Faith is such an amazing thing on so many different levels. We are forgiven, we are promised eternal life, all we have to do is have faith that our Lord Jesus died for us and rose again. Seems like such a simple thing that it surprises me to no end that people don't believe! How can you look at a rainbow, the ocean, a newborn baby and NOT believe in God?

Over the years I've struggled with relationships. As I've grown in age, maturity, faith and MYSELF it's been a process of how to react to things, how to let go of things and where to find the line between protecting my family and myself versus forgiving those who have hurt me. While at the women's retreat I was able to have a very enlightening discussion with one of the women pastors, Judy, from my church and I asked her: "Is it possible to truly forgive someone with out then opening yourself up to them. Can you move on in your life without them in it and really have forgiven them?" Her answer surprised me a little bit, "Absolutely"! SWEET! My initial reaction was such relief...it was like a 50lb weight lifted off my shoulders. She went on to explain why she believes this...here's a summary.

We, as Christians, have the most amazing gift. We are able to give our troubles, our problems, our grief to God. When we have something happening to us we can pray and simply ask Him to take it and He will. All we have to do is Let Go, Let God. (Literally one of my FAVORITE motto's ever!) When we have struggles with people or situations that we don't feel like we can handle anymore, He is always there to help us and guide us, all we need to do is pay attention and listen...obey. He knows our heart.

However, for those that do NOT believe in Him and only depend on themselves for comfort and guidance, they have a very poor example to follow. The poisons in this life from conflict both inside themselves and influences outside themselves start to fester and spread. Judy used a dandelion as an example. As it grows (the poisons) the roots take hold and start to spread. Picture the roots of a dandelion in your head, how long and thick they get, then they sprout off the main strand into smaller strands that then sprout again. It takes hold of the dirt its in and grabs on for dear life. It becomes a huge spikey thing that is almost impossible to pull out! Then the roots start attacking other flowers around it. It takes hold of their space and pulls all the nutrients away from them, killing them. We can try to pull it, but how often do we yank on a weed like that and only get the top of it, leaving the root to continue it's growth and shortly there will be another dandelion to take the place of the one we "got rid of".

When we don't have God as our poison control, the dandelion root takes over our lives. We let anger, non forgiveness, hard feelings fester in our hearts. All that nastiness turns to bitterness and bitterness turns to more anger and so on. Poison. And it effects SO many people. It spreads like disease.

We as humans are so ill equipped to deal with the poisons of this earth, if we depend on ourselves we will fail. In all we do. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but our lives will not be all they can be. Our relationships will suffer, our outlook will suffer, our happiness will suffer. With God all things are possible. With God not everything is happy and wonderful all the time, but those hard times make us better people, struggles build our endurance and our walk with Him, and with Him to turn to those stormy times seem easier. Being able to give it to Him is such a comfort, such relief. When we depend on HIM and not ourselves, we will succeed.

So can we HONESTLY forgive and still let go? Absolutely. Thank you, God for that freedom.