Letting Go and Being Content

Like so many of us, the rich young man whose story is told in Matthew 19 could not turn loose of everything and be content with nothing.  He lived miles away from the Apostle Paul who wrote, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have plenty and I know what it is to have little."  (Philippians 4:11-12).  What Paul held did not hold the Apostle, but what the rich young man held had a strangle hold on him.  The man of the gospel story realized his loss for he grieved in his spirit as he walked away, but still he walked away with what he thought was everything when it was actually nothing. 

It is only when we learn that everything is nothing and that nothing is everything that we are finally able to freely live.  Instead of understanding that everything is nothing, we turn it into something which gives our life meaning.  Our reward for holding tightly to everything is to lose our life which is what the rich young man realized he was losing as he walked away with all that held him so tightly he could not let it go.  On the other hand, being content with nothing means there is not anything which we hold that cannot be turned loose.  As Jesus reminds us it is in the giving away, the life of letting go of everything, that enables us to embrace the abundant life which He offers.  In Matthew 16:25 we hear Jesus saying, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for may sake will find it."  

It is indeed a strange word for those who like the rich young man want to find the way to eternal life.  He was a man who held tightly to his possessions, but also a man who held tightly to the illusion that he could control everything about his life.  At the core of his spirit was the belief that anything, even eternal life, could be attained by doing which is why he asked Jesus.  "What must I do?...(Tell me and I will do it.)"  In the final analysis it was more than money the rich young man had to turn lose.  He was being called to let go of his life, but he could not be content without having it and being in control of it.