Letting Go

I read Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls in 4th grade. I don't remember much from that book but part of it has stuck with me and I don't really know why. From time to time I think about the one scene I remember and today was one of those days. I was reading Breaking Free by Beth Moore and all of the sudden there I was thinking about a scene in a book I read nine years ago.

The protagonist (see, I don't even remember his name) was "'coon hunting" with pieces of something shiny. Anything shiny was put in a trap and a raccoon would come by and stick his (or her, I guess) paw into the trap to grab the shiny object. The problem was that once their paw was in around the shiny object in a fist, it was impossible to get it out of the trap again. If the raccoon would open their paw and let of of shiny object their paw would easily come out of the trap, but the raccoon was too selfish to let go and would rather die.

In the same way, we grab onto sin. God tells us all we have to do is let go and we can be free. If only it were that easy! So, here we stand with our wrists caught in raccoon traps with our fingers curled around sin and Jesus standing beside us telling us to let go. We're too selfish to listen to Him and would rather hang onto the shiny sin.

Let go of the shiny sin. Grab God's hand instead. I know, it's hard. But it's worth it!

<>< Katie

"He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, 'Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?'" Isaiah 44:20