US & PHONES & WHAT WE HAVE IN COMMON

What Do YOU and YOUR PHONE have in common??

You are probably thinking, NOTHING!!!

Oh but you do!

Let me explain:

This past Christmas I attempted to take a picture with my phone (which I was, of course, using as my camera) and it completely denied me! I could not take ONE MORE PHOTO! My phone was DONE, filled up, could not take on one more thing, so it completely shut down.

Now do you think you and your phone might have something in common?

Have you ever felt like that?

You cannot take on one more thing? Not one more task, not one more bill in the mail, no more bad news, no more aches and pains, no more heartache!

Just like my phone could not function (well, it couldn’t function as a camera!) when we are too full, overloaded, overwhelmed… we too can no longer function.

In full disclosure, I had been having this message flash up ocassionally for some time. I knew my phone was reaching its limit, so I would just delete a few pictures, making way to take the photo at hand. Obviously I wasn’t fixing my problem.

Sometimes that is exactly how we handle life. We will just smooth this over, shove this issue down, we will act like it doesn’t bother us… until one day… it is The. Very. Last. Straw! It might even take us off-guard when it happens, completely knock us off our feet. Or we may be so completely done, feeling so weary, that we knew we could no longer carry on.

So what do you do?

Here’s what I did when my phone was rendered useless because it was too full.

I STOPPED to figure out the issue.

I knew I had a lot of photos on there, with 3.000 pictures this was the obvious issue. Yet as I was checking, I discovered there was also a large amount of my storage being taken up by “media” that I had no idea about. Turns out when I would listen to a podcast it would stay right there in my precious storage space. So I deleted all of those. I also went through & deleted several APPS that I wasn’t using.

Now I was left with these precious photos of mine, all 3.000 of them! I was resisting because I just did not want to delete them.

Here's the thing; all this time I had a disc which I had purchased so I could download my photos onto it. I just did not feel confident that it was safe. How can I be sure my pictures will be safe there? My dear husband was quick to remind me; “because that is what it was made for.” (like duhhh)

Well, I finally did it, I transferred them all onto the disc…I think, I hope!

Oh technology!

Now it was time to delete my precious pictures so I could open up the storage space and free up my phone. I still hesitated.

So I decided to ALSO upload them to my Snapfish and Shutterfly accounts, just in case.

So now, NOW I can delete them, right!? Well, I am still struggling to remove them from my phone! I deleted many, and my phone works, I can take pictures, but is my phone working at full potential? Probably not.

You see, this is exactly what we do with all our STUFF.

Rather than turn it over to God, the capable One, The One who was made to carry all the weight of the world, we think we have to haul it all around, rendering ourselves useless, not running at full potential.

What is stopping us from handing it over to the One who is fully capable? Do we even MEAN to resist? Probably not, but we do, and we continue to live less than our fully effective, fully functioning, beautiful life.

Some of your dreams are the things you are white knuckling. You are afraid that if you turn them over to God, you might not ever see them again, they may just dissipate into thin air. Or maybe it is a loved one you cannot loosen your grip on. We become convinced that if we just do all the things (back it up on Snapfish and Shutterfly) we will be safe, we will be sure not to lose what we hold so dear.

But isn’t EVERYTHING safe in the hands of our amazing Father God?!

Can’t we TRUST Him with everything?

His Word says: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:6)

He's right there, waiting, His hand held out to you....

What is holding YOU back from fully releasing what you have been clutching onto like a vice grip? Are you, like me, insisting on giving Him your two-cents (you know, let’s just be sure by uploading my pics to other sites).

Here’s the thing, the bottom line.

God created you to live a fully effective, beautiful life and to live that in FREEDOM, NOT in struggle and despair, not carrying the weight of the world on YOUR shoulders. He created us as pretty amazing humans BUT He did NOT create us to carry all the stuff we insist on hauling around.

Letting go means letting GOD.

Examine your heart...see what you have been holding on to.

What can you let go of today?

What can you pry out of your clenched fists and allow Him to hold, safely?

Ok, I am off to delete the rest of my pictures in my phone now.

XO