Letting Go!

For me, a sign of the upcoming academic year is when a large garbage can is wheeled into my office. It even comes at my request!

It shows up every summer – after Synod of the Christian Reformed Church! During the academic year, I just don’t seem to have the time, but I try to make the time before a new academic year.

I need to clean my desk and organize my files. I actually enjoy this activity. I am “letting go” with a purpose, but it is not always easy. This year is my final one as President of Calvin Theological Seminary, and so cleaning and letting go has a different level of intensity and purpose. Some of my colleagues at the seminary know that when I am letting go, I may actually be passing on to them an article or papers for their files. I want to pass a baton to the next President and to them, and so I am passing along some of my files.

Letting go is not something that should be rushed. I want to make sure that I am not missing something, and I also find that any review brings back memories and sometimes sparks emotions, including joy and gratitude.

How are you at letting go?
I am not talking about cleaning an office or even organizing files. What I also find is that I am most challenged by “letting go” of certain burdens and hurts
that have occurred. People are complicated. It is amazing what can bring us back to hurts and troubles in the flash of a second. We thought we had put something behind us, but then we find ourselves facing a reminder of a situation that caused us pain.

And yet, I know that letting go is what I must do, or I cannot really move on. I believe this is the reality of the heart that Jesus was getting at when he taught disciples to pray – “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” There is a connection between being forgiven by God and finding the strength to forgive others. That letting go is a process. It takes time. It is an ongoing work. It is parallel to a deep cleaning of the heart and I am still working on it and God is still working on me.

How about you? Where do you need to “let go?”