Let Her Go

I’ve always liked the song by Passenger, called “Let Her Go”.   The guy who wrote and sings it is named Michael Rosenberg, and he is ‘Passenger’.   He has this unique raspy voice, and people love it (I like it).  If I could sing and play the guitar, I would do this song on “open mic night” at Legacy Hall.  When I listened to it recently on youtube I saw that it had 2.3 billion views – that’s Billion with a “B”.  Holly Cow.  Even if some teenage girl in England plays it non-stop for 1 billion times, that leaves 1.3 billion other people playing it.    

He’s not a Christian (very sure) – and I prefer Christian contemporary.  It’s still a great and simple song with a simple message:  we don’t know what we have until it’s gone.  We all have regrets.


   

Key lines from the song are these:

 

Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missin' home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go

 

So, don’t wait till it’s gone – he’s gone, or she’s gone.  Appreciate and be thankful for what you have now.  Seize the moment.  Don’t “let her go”.    Maybe the correlation is wrong here – the song is a love story really, of lost love.  But I think of it in this broader sense.

  

Maybe it’s a dream you once had, of doing something you love – but you let it go. 

 

Along the way there have been diversions, many of them (pic from London streets).

  

Have you ever heard someone say they have ‘No Regrets’?  Occasionally I’ll ask someone, an older man, if he has any regrets, would he do anything differently in his life if he had to do it all over again?  I really want to know – I’m looking for advice – I’m looking for guidance for the few years I have left.  But, more often than not - he says “no – I’d do it all the same again – no regrets”.

  

I don’t believe it. We all have regrets.  But it’s not cool to admit it.  It’s nothing to be ashamed of.  So, I’m thinking of my list, in the event that my kids or grandkids ever come to me and ask the question.  We all want to live a life that we won’t regret, but we will, without question, come to the point where we wish we had done something – but ran out of time.

 

I want to answer the question when asked – thoughtfully – respectfully:  “yes, I do have a few regrets, and if I were you, consider doing this . . . . . .”

 

Here’s one example: I never met my grandfather.  He didn’t die until I was in my 20’s or early 30’s.  He lived in Tulsa, just 250 miles from Dallas.  My parents were silent about him, as if he didn’t exist.  He had abandoned my fathers’ family when my dad was very young – so the story goes. . . . and goes . . . and goes (who really knows what happened?). 

 

And as Passenger says – “you let her go”.  I let him go.  Gutless and clueless, I never gave it a thought to track him down – hunt him down – stop in for a visit.  I have a feeling that he was someone who made a few bad decisions in life – screwed up along the way – took the wrong path.  And no one looked for him.  No one hunted him down.  No one gave him a second chance.   

 

That could have been me.  One wrong move, one bad choice.

 

I regret that I let him go.  I never had him, but still, I let him go.   Now my prayer is that somewhere along the way he found Jesus, and I’ll meet him at the gate, and apologize.

 

And the forgiveness party will begin!  I know he likes cigars, and I’ll bring my Cubans.  And we'll talk.

 

For Jan,

love Jack        

When the Bottom Falls Out

Everything starts to crash in around you.  Real life-ending terror sets in.  Your chest is pounding, then collapsing.  You can’t breathe.  You can’t see.  You’re shaking.  Fear takes over.

I have a plan for some “worst-case scenarios”, like losing my job, or a major stock market loss, or jail time.  But let’s face it: those aren’t the worst things that can happen.  They’re bad, but fixable.

When you’re younger – say 45 or below, you don’t think much about the “worst-case scenario”.  What is the worst-case scenario?   It’s when the doctor says you have just weeks to live.  Maybe, just days. 

Health – your physical health – is your worst-case scenario.

It seems all you ever hear about these days are the ‘advances’ in medicine and how well things are going out there for the very ill.  Miracle drugs are available.  Hope is on the rise.  Billions of $’s are being spent on research.  “Advances are being made” for this-and-that, they tell us on the daily news.  There’s another 10k run, every Saturday morning, to fix it all. 

Ya, right.

Not for you.  Not for your closest friends.  Not for your family members.  We all get those ‘other’ diseases – the ones no-one has figured out.  Those billions of $’s haven’t paid off yet, or even spent, on what ails you and the people you love most.  No, it’s not happening. 

I become defiant and my rebel heart turns to stone.  Bitterness creeps into my soul.   

I begin to rationalize and get mad, saying “God doesn’t fix those things”.  Not through medicine or prayer – he does not fix those.   There are some things he will not do – no matter how much you beg.  (for example: ALS, Hemophilia, Cancers, Dementia / Alzheimer’s).  Not in our earthly form anyway, not what we want here and now on planet earth.  Yes – for believers – the ultimate ‘healing’ is the promise of eternal life with Christ and with those who have gone before us.  We all desire that, and it’s a certainty – a guarantee for us.  As Paul said – “to live is Christ, to die is gain.”

But that’s not the answer I want – not now.   Yes, our time on earth, in these empty shells, is temporary.  Eternity is forever.  So why not enjoy this short earthly existence for 80-100 years?  Healthy and happy.  It doesn’t seem too much to ask.  Your closest friends tell you “God still heals!”.  But does he?  Not always – is the unfortunate answer.

I want the earthly healing, real physical healing, here and now – right now.  Like the blind man, the leaper, the crippled, the demon possessed, the dead.  I want it NOW God.  And what a witness that would be to non-believers, to see that miracle happen.  You could prove once and for all that your God is listening and that He cares, and that He is powerful - that He really does answer our prayers - and the only way to salvation.  You beg – with real sincerity: “God, come on, just do it, right now please – you said if I just ask, you will answer, and give me the desires of my heart.”  Prove it.

But it doesn’t happen.  No luck.  And I am prone to give up.  We’re all prone to give up.  Hundreds of prayers, no, thousands, have been lifted-up to the one true God, the creator of the universe, the one who promises to heal.   

And nothing happens.

To add insult to injury, if you complain about it, you feel shame – shame that you would be so shallow as to think you know best.  Shame that you question God.  You know better.  Then you feel guilty: “I don’t have enough Faith” I say – “if I just had more faith in God, he would do this for me”.  You punish yourself – then you get madder, and you shout to God to stop this cruel joke He is playing on you and everyone.

And nothing happens.  Silence.  Dead Silence.

---------------------------------------------------------

Then . . .  you are reminded of this one thing:  He Is God.  To begin to think that you know what He knows, or you know better, is nuts.  Something is happening, something you can’t see or understand. We are bound by time and space.  He is outside of it.  We can’t explain it - we don’t have to.  He alone is in charge. 

“But If Not” – even if you don’t answer my prayer the way I wanted you to – I will still follow you, I will still believe and trust.   It will be hard – but I will stay with you.  What other choice do I have?  You alone are God.  

So…Give up.  Surrender.  When you say ‘Lord, enough.  I give it all to you now’ - - -  you are free.