Letting go as a Spiritual Practice

Happy New Year! I hope you’ve each found time to connect with God, family and friends during this holiday season. We’ve had a lovely visit to Michigan to see family, and we really enjoyed celebrating Christmas Eve a day early on zoom with so many of you! My parents and sisters enjoyed meeting you all on the screen as well.

This week we’ll gather for our first Church in the Living Room of 2026 as usual at the Ross’ place at 10:30am. We’ll spend our time in worship and pray, as well as going through a simple practice to consider our faith in the context of a new year. 

I’ve been doing to reading about the spiritual practice sometimes referred to as an Annual Examen and in so doing a substack article by a mentor of mine, Rose Swetman caught my attention. In it she discusses the concept of “letting go” as a spiritual practice. I haven’t really thought of that before, but I think it’s a good idea. In our culture of achievement and materialism, this is a very countercultural idea.

And there is no better example of pushing against the assumptions of culture than Jesus. I think of the people and ideas things he moved away from to get to the heart of a kingdom life. He moved away from his hometown community who discounted him. When he healed on the Sabbath and touched the unclean, he moved on from implications of the law which kept real love demonstrated. When he turned over the tables in the temple to address how far things had strayed from God’s purposes for houses of worship, Jesus chose the kingdom of heaven over the kingdom of the world. We are invited to do the same.

So I wonder, what will the Spirit call me to “let go” of in this new year so that I might more align my life with Jesus? What will the Spirit call you to? Gathering Delco?

Of course, faith isn’t only about letting go, it’s also about taking up and getting active in the things of God.  I do look forward to our conversations this Sunday as we look together for wisdom for 2026. In fact, I think this is so important for our church that I plan on using our gatherings in January for a series of conversations related to next steps for us as a community. I do hope you each will join us as often as you. To keep things simple, in January will meet each week at our house on Sundays 10:30am.