Do You Love me Enough to Let me Go?

The Lord has really been moving in my heart and in my life. Today, I was struck by the importance of self-knowledge. Here are a few quotes that really inspired my prayer.

From Bl. John Henry Newman:

"Without self-knowledge you have no root in yourself personally; you may endure for a time, but under affliction or persecution your faith will not last..."

"They endure not, because the never have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and they never have had experience of his power and love, because they have never known their own weakness and need."

From St. Teresa of Avila:

"We shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God."

Self-knowledge allows us to know God more, to discern our vocation, to endure & persevere through trials, to seek God more fully. By knowing our weaknesses and our needs we can come to God, and give Him these things. We also can learn what areas of our life we need to lean on God more and seek him as strength.

Maybe you get really anxious for exams, if you know this, you are able to the peace of the Lord, and seek to unite it to him. Also, if you know anxiety is a struggle for you, you can learn more about it and would learn how it is the most challenging struggle. The Lord greatly trusts and strengthens those who struggle with anxiety and panic attacks.

Or maybe you're living your life single for the Lord at the time, and will be for at least the next year, but there is this particular man (or woman) whom you are attracted to, or maybe you know you really struggle with having "baby" crushes, and quickly moving from crush to crush, treating dating like a game(though it's actually meant to discern marriage). However, despite these struggles you are determined to live a year single for the Lord, intentionally seeking him because you know he is the only one who will fully satisfy you. Well, if you are aware of how you work. If you know you struggle with "baby" crushes, you can continuously work to hand them over to the Lord, so that He may more fully satisfy your every need.

As I said, self-knowledge allows us to know God more. But that's not the only thing I want to talk about tonight. I was listening to this song by Switchfoot today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYzktf4QTaU

And the line "Do you love me enough to let me go?" really struck me.
The Lord gave us free will. He loved us enough to let us go, to leave us to make our own decisions, though he does not actually leave us, he just gives us a choice, because he loves us. He designed us with a perfect plan, and with great intention. He loved of us enough to let us go. My question for you is, do you love God enough to let yourself go?


Pause. What? Is probably what you might be thinking. That was my first reaction to this thought.

We all have our own plans for our lives. Here's what my life plan was when I was little.

Graduate high school
Go to college (either nursing or education)
Meet an amazing man
Marry him
Have babies
Be a stay home mom
Live in the suburbs
Have a white house with green shudders
Make lots of money.
Have a dog.
etc.

However, I have to learn to let go of my plans for my life that God gave me.

God gave me this life, what better way to please him than to let go of myself, only to fully unite myself to him.

Brothers and sisters, I ask you again, do you love God enough to let yourself go?


May we seek the Lord. May we seek to know ourselves through him. May we let go of our own dreams and plans for our lives, and trust in the Lord's perfect plan, his perfect timing, his endless mercy, etc.

God bless!