Let It Go

The movie Frozen is overrated. Yes. I said it. No. I don't take it back. I mean don't get me wrong, as a sucker for kids' movies, I enjoyed it; but it has absolutely nothing on films like (in this order) 1) The Lion King 2) Aladdin 3) Princess and the Frog 4) The Little Mermaid 5) Megamind. However, the best thing to come out of this movie was the viral song Let It Go. That. Is. My. Jam! Why? Because it is life's simplest mantra.

Many of us have things we simply need to let go of. Some of us need to let go of self-doubt, while others of us need to let go of arrogance and pride. Some of us need to let go of friends and family that are unhealthy for our spiritual maturity, while others of us need to let go of our own personal egos and issues to open up to love and be loved. Some of us need to let go of old habits and bad decision-making, while others of us need to let go of condescending attitudes and judgement of others. We all have some heavy loads that need to be lifted and quite frankly, we can't do it alone.

Pastor Delano Sheffield from Macedonia Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO (which just so happens to be my church home, so shoouutt ooouutt!) spoke to this when he explained to us exactly what Matthew 11:30 meant. Now, if you are anything like me, you may have thought the verse read, "My yolk is easy..." and therefore equated the analogy to eggs. For years, I had a dietary interpretation of this scripture thinking the Lord's yolk had fewer calories than any chicken's. Well, that's not exactly the case.

The Lord's YOKE is easy. A yoke is an instrument designed to hold the heads of 2 oxen who would simultaneously carry a load from one location to another (feel free to Google an image to be further enlightened). The yoke made it so that twice the pulling power was available, lightening the heavy load for each oxen. So, when God tells us His YOKE is easy,  He's telling us we might be on one side, but He should be on the other. If He is on the other side, the burden or weight of all that we carry becomes lighter because He is God, and He shoulders the load.

However, many of us don't always put God in the other side of our yoke. We put our spouse over there and run them ragged with our nagging that is nothing more than a projection of our own  insecurity. We share the load with our friends who may be in a bad space and increase the weight on us because they are in no condition to carry anything! We put our jobs over in the other side because they allow us to afford the things that make us think we are okay when really we aren't...AT ALL!

Once we make the choice to remove all those other people and things from our yoke, or simply leave them there and go join God in His yoke, we lighten the load. We can walk a bit straighter and stand a bit taller because we aren't being weighed down by all that kept us slumped and slouched before. We can move faster because we have more freedom and liberty to do so. We are more joyous because we are getting more done; being more of a blessing to others because we made a simple choice to let it all go.

Many of us have those HEAVY things in our lives that have weighed us down for years. We can't seem to shake them. From experience, let me tell you that letting go is a process. Sometimes I've joined God in His yoke by giving it all to Him. Other times, I've given others the boot to make room for Him to lighten my load. But honestly, there are still things I am trying to shoulder alone and carry for myself and no matter how hard I try, I just can't do it! If you can relate, let's encourage one another to lighten up! Let's hand it over to He who is able! I pray that as time passes you and I both become more willing to give it to God; having faith that His yoke is much easier than any we've known and that makes his burden the lightest load we've never really carried. Be blessed. XOXO