Let It Go!

In the middle of last month I spent the afternoon in the hospital emergency room with high blood pressure and chest pain. While waiting to be treated one has the tendency to allow the mind to convict the soul of its past sins against the body and convincing the mortal structure of skin and bones awaiting a diagnosis – it’s time to pay the fiddler. I just knew my heart must be screaming for help and some sort of drastic measures were fixing to be applied to my body which I was not going to like what-so-ever. X-rays, EKG, several blood draws and other tests showed nothing. No heart attack evident. Well, I feel better, I think. A visit to the cardiologist confirmed, no blockage; no heart attack; I’ve dodged another bullet. He told me he can medicate my blood pressure, but I have to learn to let things go. Anxiety? Yep! I did get some new medicine for my problematic high blood pressure, which seems to be working great, and I started a supplement to boost my serotonin levels, which is definitely working well. No more OCD? We’ll see about that!

The passenger leaned forward and tapped the cab driver on the shoulder to ask him something. The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the sidewalk, and stopped inches from a department store window. For a second everything went dead quiet in the cab, then the driver said, “Look mister, don’t ever do that again. You scared me half to death!” The passenger apologized and said he didn’t realize that a little tap could scare him so much. The driver replied, “You’re right. I’m sorry. Really, it’s not your fault. Today is my first day as a cab driver.” Reassuring the driver the passenger said, “You seem to be a very capable driver and you were doing a great job, in fact I was enjoying the ride. What kind of work did you do before becoming a cab driver?” “Oh”, said the driver, “I’d been driving a hearse for the past 25 years.”

[2 Corinthians 5:11-21] The cabbie allowed his past experiences to cause him to take his eye off of the road and his goal of getting his passenger to his destination. Sometimes we allow our past to affect our present and future goals and destinations also. The apostle Paul told the Philippian brethren:”Not that have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). When we find our past affecting our lives in a negative way, we need to learn how to forget those things. We especially need to forget those things which keep us from focusing on our goal of heaven. When we have people in our lives that are causing us to take our eyes off of our goal of heaven, we need to forget them. When our guilt from former sins, which have been forgiven, causes us to take our eyes off of our goal of heaven, we need to forget them. When temptations to sin lead us astray from our goal of heaven, we need to forget them. We need not to allow anything in our past to take our focus off of heaven. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4). Let it go and relax. God still rules and has it all under control.