Just Drop It

I got an encouragement text from Author and Speaker Jon Acuff. He sends them out every week or so to everyone who signs up, so no I don't get personal texts from New York Times Best-selling authors. I'm open for a call though it would be cool. 

Anyhow, the message said, "“Jon Acuff here with some micro motivation! If you picked up any bitterness this year, don't miss your chance to put it down this week. Don't carry last year's rocks into next year's garden. Don't paint next year's canvas with last year's colors. Don't write next year's story with last year's words. You might need to choose to drop it 100 times, but leaving bitterness behind is always worth it”. Text sent 12-28-21

 I can’t help but agree with Jon here. If you find yourself picking up bitterness and it happens. You need to drop it again. Life is too short to hold on to this stuff and it will steal from you. Don't take up a guilt trip for picking it up, just drop it. Your life will be the better for it. 

HOWEVER, (there's always a qualifier) sometimes you don’t pick the issue up but you look and see you're holding the ball. How did this happen? It is then you remember someone else threw it to you. You grabbed it on reflex. The problem remains you are still holding the ball. 

I have on occasion had people throw me something and I caught it. What I found I got was holding something covered with goo. I dropped it. Okay, I might have thrown it back, but they were smart enough not to catch it. It was disgusting and even though I wasn't holding the disgusting thing I was contaminated by it. Yuk. 

I was forced to find a way to clean off the mess. Often it was to wipe my hands on my dirty work clothes, but at other times I had to find a bathroom because I couldn't afford to get the stuff on my clothes. Let me tell you some of that stuff I never what to know what it was.  

Emotionally it's the same. You didn't mean to hold on to the issue, bitterness, anger, whatever it was, but now you're holding it. So drop it, holding it doesn't help you. And if it’s really messy like a muddy football you will probably need to wash your hands and maybe even change. It will take time, but it’s worth it. 

One final piece of advice, don't feel guilty if you find the issue in your hands, just drop it, clean up and go on. You will find life is better when you do.  

Photo by John Torcasio on Unsplash