For a long time, the top of my washing machine was broken so that it wouldn’t stay open on its own. Whenever I did laundry, I had to hold the top open with one hand and load the clothes with the other. It was a bit slow and awkward, but I got used to it. It became habit.
A few months ago, a handyman fixed the top so that it stays open on its own now. I don’t have to hold it up any more, but most of the time I forget. Almost every time I do laundry, I find myself holding the top up with one hand and loading the clothes with the other. After a few minutes, I remember, and I smile to myself. “It’s okay, Bets, you can let go.”
Father, there are so many things that I am in the habit of anxiously trying to hold up on my own—the well-being of a child; what someone else will or won’t do; things that might happen in the next hour or day or lifetime in my small world or in the world at large. Please keep reminding me, in Your smiling way, that I can let go.
“Be comforted, small one, in your smallness. . . . Receive and be glad. Have no fear, lest your shoulders be bearing this world.” C. S. Lewis, Perelandra
“You don’t have to be anxious. . . .” Philippians 4:6
“Let go and let God.” Alcoholics Anonymous