Chinese philosopher Lin Yutang said, “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” Which begs the question, of what do we need to let go to better serve Christ? What are those things that need to be put aside?
In our modern culture we tend to fill our lives with so much. We have family commitments, work commitments and personal commitments. It can be hard to find a moment of peace. Television, radio, cell phones, the internet (you are reading this online after all!!); so much calls out and begs for our focus and attention. Entire industries have arisen with the single goal of capturing our attention. Of course everything looks appealing and it seems like such a good idea at the time. Suddenly we have overfilled our capacity and overbooked our schedules. More often than not it is Christ that is the first thing to get squeezed out. We need to let something go.
Being full of Christ means there is no room for any of this other stuff we may have in our life. It seems we’ve gotten it backwards. Our lives are so full that we’ve run out of room for Christ. I think Satan smiles when He sees this. He barely had to lift a finger to get our eyes off of Jesus. He simply had to tempt us with the modern day fruit from the tree of what society has defined as “life”. We have not only taken a bite, but we have made a feast from this tree. We grab all we can and eat until we are full. But where is our first love? Where is the One who saved us from a life of pointlessness and despair? He has become the forgotten Man.
We need to go on a diet. Like all diets, the best ones are those that make slow but steady progress. Sure, simply casting off all the trappings of modern society all at once may work for awhile, and it may even work permanently for a few. But by and large, experience and research has shown that lasting results comes from slow but steady changes. We need to make the shift to being full of Christ and empty of everything else. We need to be so full of love that it overflows and permeates everything we do. There is no room for anything other than this in a life fully devoted to Christ. There is no half way to living a full life; being full is all or nothing.
So what are you full of today? Is it Christ and His love or is it the pleasures and accomplishments of our culture and society? What do you need to let go today? Write a list of everything in your life that is not contributing to the goal of being completely filled by the love of Christ. Take the time to get it all down on paper. Now look at your list and pick one item that you will begin eradicating from your life this week; write down a plan for how you will let it go, then execute that plan. Once this particular item is out of your life, move to the next one on the list and do the same with it.
We all want to live a full life. The only question is with what will we fill it? Will it be with self-importance, achievement, popularity, the glitz of Madison Avenue? Or will it be with the love, humility and gentleness of the love of Jesus Christ? What will ultimately matter when all is said and done? What is keeping us from being truly full of Christ today? It’s time to let it go.