Let Go and Let God, Even in a Pandemic - Letting Go and Holding Tight

A Slogan

“Let go and let God” was one of the earliest suggestions I heard around the Al-Anon rooms. Too often in those early years, I treated the idea like a bumper sticker: good to read in traffic; easy to forget in the battle of daily living with an alcoholic.

But, like they say, bring the body and the mind will follow, and as I kept coming, I began to see my being large and in charge was creating more problems than it was solving.

Coming to Believe

As I came to believe in a power greater than I, and discovered God in Christ, letting go into His hands made sense. And when I actually did turn things over, some battles just . . . waned. I didn’t lose them, I didn’t win them; I just realized they were not mine to fight. ( 2 Chronicles 20:15)

Letting go and letting God is still smart, even in a pandemic – especially in this time of uncertainty. (AA Grapevine, July 2020)

The people, places and things I have turned over to His care have become Ebenezer stones of just how far the Lord was capable of leading me. (1 Samuel 7:12)

Even in a pandemic – especially in this time of uncertainty. (Isaiah 41:13)

Fortunately, the steps suggested that as I turned stuff I could not control over to God, I still had work to do . . . all kinds of stuff, I had resisted doing . . . like staying on MY side of the street, and tending to my business.

I found some wisdom that reminds me, don’t live this day like a bumper sticker

. . . At its best, this phrase [Let Go and Let God] highlights the value of surrender. God is God and you are not, so lay down your résumé, your excuses, your fears.
All too often, though, the phrase is wielded as if the symbol of Christianity is not a cross but a couch. It’s subtly used to put the brakes on striving, on working, on effort.
. . . As J. I. Packer once put it, “The Christian’s motto should not be ‘Let go and let God’ but ‘Trust God and get going.’”(5 Christian Clichés That Need to Die)