Let It Go Series

source: http://www.jokes4us.com/miscellaneousjokes/weatherjokes/falljokes.html

Why does Humpty Dumpty love autumn? Because he had a great fall!

Why are trees very forgiving? Because in fall they “let it go” and in the spring, they “turn over a new leaf.”

Fall is a time of transition. There are so many changes that happen, both in nature and in our lives.

In fall, we get to see God’s handiwork put on display in a more magnificent way than I believe in any other time of the year, with maybe the single exception of spring when flowers are blooming for the first time.

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at lessons we can learn from this time of year.

We have been encouraged, like the colorful leaves of fall, to let our true selves show through for all to see as a testimony to our amazing Creator above.

In the season of fall, amid the changing colors of leaves, and the changing weather, we can often find an evergreen tree standing strong. Just like that tree, enduring through the changing seasons and temperatures, God is a fixed, unchanging stronghold for us in our world of constant change and fluctuation.

Last week, we learned that we need balance in our lives, just like the autumn equinox provides the same number of hours of daylight and night.

We can learn from the animals of fall, like the squirrels. They spend the season gathering and preparing for the harsh, cold, unforgiving winter. We too should make sure that we are storing up the right things at the right time in the right place — for where our treasure is, there our heart is also.

We have to make sure we always delight in the details around us. Stop and smell the roses, notice the colors of the leaves, observe God at work all around us.

From the celebrations of fall, we learned that we need to measure our successes. We also need to stop and be thankful for God’s successes in our lives. From these, we draw hope and strength for the future ahead.

Today, it has been said that autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.

Tommy and Eddie from the skit guys gives us this morning the skinny, the true secret, on The baggage which we need to let go.

Video Ill.: The Skinny on Hurts, Habits, and Hang-Ups (The Skit Guys)

The hurts, the habits, and the hangups — the baggage that we carry with us every single day.

Just as the leaves fall to the ground in autumn, this season invites us on a journey of releasing the extra weight we are dragging around in our lives — The hurts, the habits, and the hangups that are doing nothing more than keeping us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually chained and bound.

Let’s take a few moments this morning to look at the hurts, the habits, and the hang-ups. Let’s learn about letting it go, and I don’t mean the song from Frozen.

Let’s start with the hurts.

Hurts cut deep.

Hurts take time to heal.

Often, though, like a kid, instead of letting our wounds heal, we keep picking at the scab, keeping the wound festering and bleeding. As we keep picking at it, it never heals over. We are left with an open wound, out there reminding us of the incident that initially caused our pain.

I know we’ve been hurt. We’ve all been hurt.

Take a moment and ask ourselves who has hurt us?

What did they do that hurt us?

How long has it been?

I guarantee you can answer those questions in a heartbeat.

The anger — the hate — the indignation — the disappointment — the frustration — The embarrassment — it’s right there just under the surface, just waiting for someone to ask so we can rehash the story again.

“One day, I will get my revenge for what they did to me. I hate them,” we say.

“One day, I will set it all straight.”

One day.

But that day never comes.

And we end up living a life of regret — regret for all of the things we could have done but didn’t because we were so preoccupied with the hurt and pain.

Here’s the thing about all of this: the people who hurt us probably don’t even know or even care about the hurt they’ve caused us.

And as quickly as we can rehash the story of our pain, they have just as quickly moved on in their lives, leaving us alone to re-live the incident, the situation, the pain over and over again by ourselves.

Author C. JoyBell C. wrote, “If you want to forget something or someone, never hate it, or never hate him or her. Everything and everyone that you hate is engraved upon your heart; if you want to let go of something, if you want to forget, you cannot hate.”