This morning I took some time to meditate after my run. Sometimes I do this when my heart is heavy and my mind is racing, and God reminds me that I just need to be still. My usual place is a serene spot on a dock at the lake near my house. Today when I meditated the lake was still and quiet and the only signs of life were the fish that popped up and out of the lake for only a second. My heart was weary and my mind was loud, much the opposite of the still morning.

As I was meditating, I began to let my mind wonder to a sail boat docked across the still lake. I begin to imagine putting all of the things I couldn’t change in life into that one boat. The things I wished would be different. The things and people I’ve said goodbye to. Everything that once was but wasn’t anymore. All my expectations, doubts, sorrows, and grief- I imagined each one to be tangible in my head, then imagined myself placing that specific thing into the sail boat.

One by one I imagined sending the boat and the object out to the open water. Imagined myself saying a goodbye to each one individually, letting my body feel what it needed to just to let it all go. If it was sorrow and grief I needed to let my body feel to let that thing go, then I let myself feel that sorrow and grief. If it was contentment with a circumstance than I let my mind finally be content and ship it out to sea. No longer giving these objects the authority or sovereignty to take over my life.

One by one the sailboats sailed to the horizon, but didn’t just stop there. Individually across the horizon I imagined them sailing into the arms of Jesus. Each floating and being covered by his arms on that cross when his loved laid out for me.

This doesn’t mean that you are boxing up things and put it to the back of your mind, letting it resurface when you are triggered. It means that you are finally not letting that one thing control your life, your thoughts, or your expectations anymore. You are releasing the responsibility of the thing, and giving all of it to Jesus.

If it is, it will be in God’s timing. If it isn’t, than there is hope what God has planned for you is much better than anything you could have wanted.