Open Handed

    Receive all God has.

This is the scariest phrase I’ve ever heard.

Receive ALL God has. Opening up to all God has for us is hugely risky.

God has good things for us. Big things. But to receive big things, our hands have to be open, fingers uncurled. And I am a grasper.

I want to cling to what I love – the people in my life, my plans, my comfort. It feels more secure to close my fist and squeeze tight so that none of it can slip away.

I hold on to the things I’ve been given like my daughter clutches her security blanket. She loves that thing, but there are times I ask her to put her blankie down so I can hold her hand. And she does, because she trusts me, and because I’m a bigger comfort to her than her blankie is.

She puts down something she can’t imagine life without and offers me her open hand.

No fear. No whys. Just calm acceptance of what I have for her. She knows I love her, and that’s enough.

To have that kind of faith… To live with open hands, unafraid of what my Father will give and what he might take away.

Life is changing quickly right now, as we get ready to move to Papua New Guinea. God is giving us a new adventure, beautiful new chapters in an epic story. But to make room for the new, we’re having to let go of some of the things that feel like security.

    Living open handed means I have no control.

But the reality is that I’ve never had any control, just grasping hands closed off to all God has for me. And having anything but hands wide open is the worst kind of tragedy, because what he has for me is himself, in all his infinite love and wild glory.

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
(Ephesians 3:19 NLT)