When I was learning how to swim, waist deep in the sea, my father would hold my chin with his palm while I flapped my arms and feet. Because I feared drowning, I would flap frantically, not synchronizing my arms and my feet so that I ended up swallowing seawater.
My Dad would often remind me to not panic and just to stay calm and try synchronizing the flapping of my arms and feet, to let go! Swimming is first floating, and the more you struggle the more you sink, so just let the water carry your weight. Let go and let your body float. The body has natural buoyancy that allows it to float with just enough help from our flapping. And slowly I learned how to float by letting go and letting the seawater buoy me up.
In the Gospel this Sunday, the young man wants Jesus to teach him how to attain eternal life, “Good teacher… what must I do to inherit eternal life.” (Mt. 10:17) And Jesus, looking at him with love said, “You know the commandments… He replied… Teacher all these I have observed.” Jesus said to him, “Let go of all your possessions, give to the poor and follow me.”
In life, like floating, sometimes we need to let go of our desire to control. In life, like swimming, we need to let go of our frantic flapping and synchronize our mind, heart, soul and strength with God. The key to floating and swimming in life is to allow the natural grace to buoy us up, it is letting God be the seawater to push and hold us up.
The Lord was saying to the young man that if he wished to inherit eternal life, then he has to let go of so many things that weigh him down. In the same way, in essence, Jesus is also telling us, like the young man, if we want to inherit eternal life, then we have to let go of our attachments, our possessions, and let go of our control, “then come, follow me.” (Mt. 10:21) Let go and let God do His way for us, follow His way and not our way.
Christian discipleship is a continuing process of letting go and letting God. It is like an experience of learning how to float and how to swim in the sea of God’s love. Putting it in simpler thought, Christian discipleship is easy when we “leave the driving to God – let go and let God.”
Be in God,
Fr. Bing
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