The Release

Once when visiting good friends and longtime church members Elizabeth and Lana, they took me to a bulletin board at the nursing facility they then called home.  The board's background paper had the prettiest blue sky with white billowing clouds.  Pinned to the board were three dimentional doves with the names of former residents who home was with our Lord in heaven. I would be taken to that bulletin board three months later.  Lana outlived Elizabeth, and took me to the board where she pointed out Elizabeth's dove.  Elizabeth's full name was on the front of the dove.  In the wings was one of Elizabeth's and Lana's favorite scriptures, Psalm 138: " You have created us and made us for yourself. " Lana and Elizabeth studied that psalm, committed it to memory and found God's comfort in its words.  Lana's conversation was focused on her dear friend.  Lana told me her physical body would remain here but her soul, like Elizabeth's , would be released into God's kingdom  where she would experience joy and no pain. 

I have been thinking about release alot lately.  At my mom's memorial service, she planned for each of her family members to hold a dove.  After I gave the prayer, all the family members were to release their doves.  In doing so, we released her to God's care until we meet again in heaven.

Release is good for the soul.  It is not limited to times of loss.  God calls us to release the things of old and to trust him, follow him and know he will take care of us and meet our needs.  For many past and present it calls for us to give up our views of what our service and careers should be.  A friend told me how he was comfortable with his teaching and coaching jobs until he attended a weekend retreat called the "Walk to Emmaus."  That weekend changed his life.  The more he participated in and became active in church, the more he realized his calling was to be a minister.  He packed up his family and a very unhappy wife and they left for seminary.  Today they serve a growing, vibrant church as a clergy couple.  Yes I said couple!  God worked through her resistance in his time.  Her response became a loud, definitive YES!

In one of my pastor's sermons, he spoke a phrase which remained etched in me today:  God does not call the equipped, he equips the called.  He reminded us that we face many "firsts"  which call on us to release:  the first day of school, middle school, high school, high school, college, young adulthood, decisions and choices, choices, choices.  God is always a part of our "firsts" and calms us, giving us his peace.  He illustrated this which 2 Peter 1:2:  "May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity and freedom from fears and moral conflict) be multiplied in you in knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord." He told us the "first" and times we are called to release will not end at the school doors or the front doors but are a continual part of our lives.  How we react and respond speaks to our faith and trust in God.  That does not mean we won't have doubts along the way.

Others before us were called to change their perceptions of what and who God wanted them to be.  What were their responses?  They gave excuses and struggled as we do.  Moses could think of many reasons he was not worthy and able to serve, but could not deny God who gave him help with speaking and the courage to challenge a pharoah whose behavior was not godly.  Jonah ran the other way, only to have the darkness of a whale's belly convince him that God calls for obedience and serving him was not meant to always be easy. Gideon's experience with armies and defeat almost defeated him, yet to his amazement God called him "mighty warrior." Gideon realized that God saw potential in him. Releasing the old requires us to see ourselves in God's light.  He reveals his word and guides us in the direction He has for our lives through challenges and people and accountability.

Releasing requires recognition.  There are other Moses, Jonahs, and Gideons in our world.  They need to know God's peace is there and God will see and nourish their potential as He sees and nourishes ours. Again turn to Psalm 138:  "  In you we become everything you have made us to be."  These words bear repeating.  No challenge is so big that we can't turn to our loving God to guide us and strengthen us.

Lana's dove, later placed on the board, had this scripture hand written in it's wings. Both families blessed my life by giving me the doves months after Elizabeth's and Lana's deaths.  I look at the doves and am reminded that God continues to work in our lives so that we will become everything HE has made us to be.