Refusing To Let Go

Yesterday the morning news showed a video of a small dog with a broom in his mouth.  He was attempting to enter a doorway with the brook held like the picture to the left.  The broom was longer than the door was wide and kept hitting the wall preventing the dog from entering.  This persistent dog kept backing up, turning around and trying again.  Each time he was stopped by the broom hitting each side of the doorway.  He tried multiple times, yet he never let go of the broom.  The video was hilarious and shown several times.  Everyone laughed because the dog wasn't intelligent enough to know that if he just put the broom down he could enter the door.  His refusal to let go prevented him from moving forward.

While that is funny, we as human beings do the same thing.  We hold on to something emotionally and refuse to let go.  Our refusal to let go prevents us from moving forward.  We complain to others about our inability to move forward.  We try therapy.  We blame our past. We modify our behavior or actions.  Yet the painful event keeps popping into our minds.  We allow our emotional past to hold us back from achieving the goals God has set for us.  Why?  Why did the dog refuse to let go of the broom? 

The dog wanted the broom in his mouth more than he wanted to enter the door.  We want to hold on to our emotional baggage more than we want to move forward.  That emotional baggage is our comforter.  It makes us feel better when we fail at something.  It is something to blame when we fear an endeavor more than we trust God.  It is a wonderful excuse when we hurt others.  We fail to understand that if we just let go, we could move forward and grow from the experience.

What are you holding on to that is preventing you from growing to the heights God has planned for you?  Something from your childhood?  A missed opportunity?  Something from your marriage?  Why not look up and see God waiting to take it from you? 

Oh, but Theresa, I do that everyday and then the next day it bothers me again.

I know.  I used to do the same thing.  Then I realized I was focusing on myself.  The truth is that we program our brains to replay events in our lives.  We can't just forget those painful events, but we can reprogram our brains to focus on other things.  The way I reprogrammed my brain was everytime a painful event popped into my mind, I would repeat one phrase to myself until the memory was gone.  Now I find that I seldom have to repeat the phrase.  You can use any phrase you want, but the one I used was "It ain't all about you".  You would be amazed at how that small phrase will help you overcome the pain in your life.

Remember the one who hurt you is as human as you are.  They've been hurt just like you have.  They have faults just like you do.  They have bad days, hold secret pains, hide their stress from the world just like you do.  Let's cut each other and ourselves some slack and let go of the past.