What I'm Learning About Letting Go (And What You Might Need to Hear)

Honoring the Past Without Idolizing It I'm sitting in an empty building. Sixteen years of ministry happened here. Hundreds of lives changed. Countless stories. And now it's empty. We're selling it. We're moving on. And that's raised a question for me: How do you honor the past without being stuck in it? How do you remember what God did without worshiping the memorial, without idolizing it? There's this tension in scripture between remembering the past and pressing toward the future. On one hand, God tells Israel to build memorials, to stack stones. "Remember what I did for you." In Joshua chapter 4, after crossing the Jordan, God tells them to take twelve stones and build a memorial. And when your children ask, "What do these stones mean?" tell them what God did here. Memorials matter. Remembering matters. But here's what Israel wasn't supposed to do: they weren't supposed to camp out at the stones and worship them. These stones were meant to say, "Look what God did here so that we can trust him going over there." Not, "Let's stay here forever." And then there's Isaiah 43:18-19. You know the scripture that says to forget the former things? "Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." That's a wild verse. God is literally saying to them, "Don't forget what I did, but don't get so fixated on it that you don't see what I'm doing right now." See, the Israelites had a problem. They kept looking back on Egypt. They kept romanticizing the past. "We had leeks and onions back there." Yeah, but you also had slavery. They were so attached to what was that they couldn't see what God was doing next. The Tension Between Honoring and Idolizing So here's the tension: How do you honor the past without idolizing it? Honoring the past looks like saying, "God moved here. Lives were changed. I'm extremely grateful for that." Idolizing the past means saying, "The best days are behind us. Nothing will ever be as good as it was." Honoring the past means building a memorial but keeping moving forward. Idolizing the past looks like camping out at the memorial and refusing to leave it. One leads to gratitude. The other leads to stagnation. For me, sitting in this empty building, this is a memorial moment. Hundreds of lives were changed here. I have so many testimonies and fond memories of things that happened in this building. Moments at the altar when we had chapel service here. Families restored. Lives transformed by the power of God. It's been incredible. It's been amazing to think about. Our family built this together. And I am so grateful for all the memories I have here. But I can't camp out here. I can't worship the location. I can't sit here and say that the only way to do this going forward is residential ministry and that's it forever. Because that's not honoring what God did. That's idolizing a method. So I'm building my memorial. I'm remembering. I'm extremely grateful. But I'm also moving forward, because God's not done yet. He's doing a new thing. And if I'm too busy staring at the stones, I'll miss what he's doing right now. What Are You Holding On To? So let me ask you this question: What are you holding on to that God's asking you to let go of? Maybe it's a job that used to bring you life but is absolutely draining you now. Maybe it's a relationship you need to walk away from because you know it's run its course. Maybe it's a version of yourself from ten years ago that you're still holding on to, but God's asking you to let go of it. Maybe it's a ministry, a method, or a dream that you're clinging to because you're afraid of what comes next. So here's the question: Are you honoring it, or are you really just idolizing it? Are you grateful for what it was, or are you refusing to move because you're afraid that your best days are behind you? Three Steps to Let Go Here's the deal: Letting go isn't passive. It's actually one of the most active things we can do. You're not saying, "Oh well, I guess it's over. I guess we just quit here." It actually requires you to do three things. Number one: Acknowledge what was. Just because you're moving forward from something doesn't mean you can't acknowledge the good that happened in the season behind you. Don't pretend it didn't matter. This building? It mattered. There's so many rich memories here that I'll never forget. Don't minimize it. Be willing to say, "Yeah, that was real. God showed up, and I'm so grateful that he did." Number two: Release what's ending. Stop trying to resurrect it. Stop trying to force it to work. If it's done, it's done. Number three: Trust God for what's next. This is the hardest part, because you don't know what's next. But God does. Isaiah 43:19 again: "See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?" The new thing is already starting. You just have to trust it. The Challenge So here's my challenge to you: Build your memorial. Remember what God did there. Be grateful. But don't camp out there. Don't worship the stones. Don't idolize the past. Because God is doing a new thing, and if you remain stuck in what was, you're going to miss out on what's coming next. For me, that means selling this building. It means going back to our roots with community-based recovery ministry and starting to do the work of building something new. For you, I don't know what that looks like. But I'm willing to bet there's something God is asking you to release that you're still holding on to. So let go. Build a memorial. Because the mission continues. It just may not be in the same building you've been living in. It's time to step forward.