How often do you lash out in sin simply because you’re being inconvenienced? Does that sound a little harsh? Maybe, but when I think about my own life . . .
My comfort is jeopardized so I snap at my children. My time to sit and relax is impinged, my night out is cut short, my day off is ruined, my television show is interrupted, my ice cream has been eaten. You get the idea. Comfort may seem like an innocuous, neutral idea. It may even seem like something that we’re each entitled to. However, when we refuse to let it go, or respond in sin against our neighbor because it has been wrenched away, the neutrality of comfort is gone; and something much more insidious has taken its place.
But comfort isn’t the only thing we humans cling to. So often we stubbornly hold on to anything we believe is ours with an iron grip, refusing to find freedom that would surely come with an open hand. Let’s consider just a few of them.
We Cling to Our Interests
Golf, shopping, cooking, traveling, fashion, politics, brewing coffee, gardening, hunting, football, or disc golf—our interests are as variegated as we are. Each of these, in its own place, is a gift from God. He created the earth and all it contains not only for us to steward, but also for us to enjoy. Hobbies and interests are good and natural. A person lacking passions also probably lacks personality.
And yet, we often cling too tightly to our interests. Paul warned the Philippians, “Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). Take a moment to inventory how much time, money, and conversational bandwidth your interests consume. Are you clinging to them with an iron grip?
We Cling to Our Time
Time: the great equalizer. Each of us receives twenty-four hours each day to use as we please. No one receives a second more, nor a second less. And yet, sometimes I treat my time like a miser hoarding his gold. I count it and recount it, wanting to account for every second, planning out every step. I value efficiency, punctuality, and planning; and I become frustrated with people who have a more carefree attitude toward their 1,440 minutes of the day. I want to blame them for squandering my time. However, grasping time can have the opposite look as well. Those who take no thought for another person’s time are selfishly valuing their own right to waste time above their neighbor. Do you hang on too tightly to time?
We Cling to Our Reputation
Approval and affirmation drive many of our actions and often motivate our inaction. Have you ever resisted sharing the gospel with someone because you didn’t want the other person to think that you’re weird? Or soft-pedaled your involvement in church? Me too. Our love for the approval of people can often keep us from living boldly for the kingdom of Christ. Because we keep our fists closed tightly around this elusive ideal of adulation, we miss out on the exaltation of the true King.
We Cling to Our Opinions
In the hair-trigger, outrage-minded, polarized society of the twenty-first century, holding opinions with an open hand seems countercultural at best and completely nuts at worst. Of course, we must cling unswervingly to certain truths, such as the authority of Scripture, the atoning work of Christ, and the Trinitarian nature of God; however, these doctrines are not opinions. My choice of whom to vote for, what foods to eat or not eat, how to school my children, what doctors to see or vaccinations to accept—those opinions I must hold loosely. Grasping them with an iron grip will lead to “disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:16).
We Cling to Our Past
Trauma, tragedy, or abuse certainly qualify as watershed moments in anyone’s life. If you’ve suffered one of these horrific things, you will never forget it. However, you don’t have to let it define you. Clinging to the past and viewing your whole life through the “survivor/victim” lens will never lead to fulfillment or flourishing. You can learn—perhaps with the assistance of a wise and godly biblical counselor—to surrender your past to the Heavenly Father and allow Him to redeem even the most stained past. (Consider the life of Joseph in Genesis 38–50 and Joseph’s words in 50:20.)
We Cling to Our Autonomy
“My body, my choice.” We’re used to hearing such language in regard to abortion, but the applications now stretch much farther than just one category. From the LGBTQ+ revolution to hook-up/shack-up culture to drugs, drunkenness, and self-indulgence, our culture’s love affair with autonomy stretches far and wide. We love to believe that we have the right to do whatever we want with our bodies, but such arrogance denies our identity as clay pots who have no right to question the Potter (Isa. 29:16).
Embrace the Savior Who Chose Not to Cling
This list does nothing more than skip rocks across a deep and wide pond. We could tabulate an interminable list of the idols of our hearts. Instead, we must turn our eyes to the One who chose not to cling to the rights and privileges He rightfully enjoyed. We must embrace the mind of Christ:
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5–8)
If we are ever to stop grasping what is not ours to hold, we must look to Christ, the humble Servant-King who laid aside the glory and splendor of heaven to robe Himself in humanity and die in our place. This ultimate act of humility changes everything for our idolatrous hearts. The gospel frees us from clinging to the wrong things by replacing our wicked, grasping hearts with hearts on which the very Law of God is written. We can open our hands and relinquish our favorite trinkets, free our fists from the trap, and find fullness of joy in the presence of the Savior.
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