Screech. Scream. Boom. Shuffling feet. A not so sweet moment in my #SweetSunday. A car accident where no humans were harmed (Praise Jesus) but the suitcase got hit hard. Boom. “She’s okay. The contact was the car and her suitcase. No one was hurt,” I said to the two women walking out of the store I was getting ready to enter. They sighed deep sighs of relief, and lowered their hands from their chest and swift beating hearts.
I wasn’t in the store long before I meandered into another, grabbed a few items, and requested a fitting room. It was far less about trying on the items and more about a private space to gather myself. It had been a trying week with hard news, hard news, bad news, and what was supposed to be a peaceful afternoon to help me reset for the week ahead was interrupted by screeching tires, screaming people, the boom of a car and a suitcase. I texted my guy, too shaken up to call him and actually speak. “If she hadn’t let go of the suitcase, she would have gotten hit. It would have been bad.” I typed.
Those words have been lingering in my head and heart the past few days asking me to consider what happens,
“what gets hit, what can become bad, if we don’t let go?”
Earlier this summer I had a closet clean-out. I pulled dressed, pants, skirts, tees, blouses that I needed to let go. Not let go because I couldn’t fit them. Not let go because they were noticeably outdated. Not let go because they were gently (or not so gently) used. It was let go because they no longer represented who I am and where I believe I am graced and purposed to go. It. Was. Hard. Like seriously. I thought it would be easy. But there were certain pieces that I wanted to hold onto just in case. Other pieces that I kept thinking if I just purchased a higher heel or a certain accessory, I could completely make it work. Some pieces I just wasn’t convinced wouldn’t come back on trend, so perhaps I should just tuck it away and be ready.
Fortunately, I wasn’t cleaning out my closet on my own. I had two friends come over and help. I knew I would need them for those moments I was not wiling to let go but holding on served no real purpose.
“Grace helps us let go to things we want to hold onto that could harm us, that do not serve a purpose, and will not nudge us toward our purpose. Grace will give us all that we need to make hard, uncomfortable, sad, scary, risky decisions, to release any and all things that impede us from living the abundant lives we were purposed to live. Grace will remind us that what it has for us is meant to give us life and not to harm us, to give us a future and a hope.”
My prayer this week is that you trust there is still an accessible abundant grace to help you let go (because there absolutely is!). That you will trust that God in all of His goodness has more good for you than what you are holding so tightly to, what could cost you your life, your livelihood, your purpose. And, if you need help, you need to be motivated to maintain your grit, reminded there’s no shortage on grace, and a homegirl (or homeboy, or home gender non conforming, etc.) you will ask and let folks in to help you let go.
With Love,
Grit + Grace