The above is a powerful metaphor for every Christian who wants to worship his God and relate with others without hang ups but in a healthy manner. After reading the reflection, we cannot fail to see that we are victims of not letting go of some of the things that create problems in our lives. Without wasting time, we are all victims of “hold-ups” or “go slows” in our lives. As Nigerians you will know what I am driving at.
“Go slow” or Hold-ups prevent us from reaching home or our destinations on time. When you are coming home from work and your wife has left earlier to prepare dinner for you and not seeing you, then she constantly calls you on phone to know why. Your anxious wife wanted you to come home after preparing a delicious dinner but “go slow” held you back. Go slow is an obstacle to reaching home to eat the food prepared by your loving wife.
Thank God, the food flask can keep the food hot a bit before the mighty “go slow” eases up. We can also be an obstacle to ourselves when we do not let what prevents us from growing go. If you cause “go slow” in your life, you cannot grow to be happy or be creative or even think better. We do not free ourselves from those negative thoughts we built in our computer memory to let go; we allow what our classmates told us when we were in school to still bother us at this age.
What our mothers told us when we were outside family rule still haunts us at this time when we are no longer living with her. We cannot forget the harsh words of our husbands when we entered the family the first time. The negative remarks of their mothers still loom large in our minds. On remembering all these, we feel helpless and we continue to rehash them in our minds.
We won’t let go. Do you see the holds ups of go slow you are causing in your life by allowing the negative past ruin your life? It can affect your relationship with your whole family. Negative personality i.e. everything others do are coloured by our negative perception of them. Because we did not welcome what they said to us when we met before, we expect that what they will say to us now will be the same thing they said before. No! We project a lot. It does not encourage spiritual growth.
We do not allow that part of us that needs to grow because we are dominated by negative thoughts and never let go the hurts we felt when interpreting what people say about us. They may mean well but we decided to pick what might hurt us in what they say about us. We are afraid to scrutinize ourselves to let the “devil may care” attitude leave us. Because we are that, many people may not come near us and people may not be near them.
What a life? Scrutinizing ourselves can be a way of knowing ourselves, and letting what should not be there go and give way to self-growth. It is a way of understanding the ugliness and malice of sin in us that has been outstanding, causing havoc in us. These things have no right in us but we give them power to stay in us and damage our personality. It is we that can let them go. We have all the powers. Using our power to let them go is a way of being in touch with ourselves with God and with others in the society.
A great number of people are like walking corpses because they failed to let go of some of the past grudges and they allow them to consume their lives. As they walk in the streets, they cannot hear the horn of a car. Pride is one of the causes of not letting things go. Pride makes one believe that what one is doing is right. When we let go envy,pride, resentments, lack of forgiveness, we are on the way to recovery of ourselves, brokenness, wounds are healed.
We learn now that life is growing, giving up misgivings, editing ourselves every day and removing the junks, the past that hinder us from growing. Now you can say “Thank you JESUS for breaking all the chains that kept us in bondage”.
• Very Rev. Monsignor Livinus Ukah is a Catholic Priest, Author of many books and a crusader of Peace and Social Justice.