Letting Go

One of the things I had to recently let go of was a place I had at the beach.  I’ve had two different ones over the past seven years.  The first place was especially instrumental in helping me heal through my depression.  God used those times I was there, to teach me from His Word. 

The ironic thing is when I totally let go of what I think I want and need, many times He chooses to return those things to me in some other way.  The place at the beach is one example He chose to return to me.  While I had it for sale since after September 11th I had no previous offers, but lots of calls. 

Then one day I happened to be telling a church friend of mine that I had it up for sale.  There was a long quiet pause at her end of the conversation, but nothing more than, she said how sorry she was to hear that, since she knew how much it meant to me. 

Two days later, I was at the beach and my husband called to tell me my friend  had called, and had the idea she was interested in looking at it.  How soon we could get together?  Prior to our conversation she had never given any thought to buying it.  She had been going through a lot of personal issues and had been in no position to give it any consideration.

It took us two weeks to be able to work out going down together.  She had never been to that part of the beach.   That weekend I showed her around and she loved it.  Not only did she want to buy it, she was willing to meet my price.  She had no furniture so she agreed to purchase most of mine.  She was more than willing to let me leave some personal things I had there, until such time as I either needed them back or bought another place.  Since I am short of storage space that was perfect for me as well. 

We had one more hurdle.  Since it was on a rented space, the man I rented from had to agree to let her stay.  That took several weeks for all of us to be able to get together, but she and I both thought he would agree and he did.

She told me not once, but several different times that for her to agree to buy my little retreat; I had to promise to continue to use it whenever I wished, at no charge.  You see in effect it's still mine to use, but only because I released it completely and now someone else is also my spiritual retreat. 

God provided this special place for me, when I had needs which could be met in such a place.  My needs, and the solutions to those needs are different now. However, my friend has her own needs, which are helped and healed by this place, and God has provided for both of us.

I still enjoy going down to the coast especially in the off seasons, but also because its close to my two precious little grandchildren.  He used my little beach place to teach me that there are some things that we have to be willing to release to be of service to Him, some things that have to be held loosely, if at all.