TMC: Gourds and Bananas

Yesterday was another Thursday Morning Club, and this time I didn't prepare at all. I was too busy with church council and Luther League planning to write a bible study. But I did have a lot on my heart and let it poor out in the way of a bible study.

I drew a gourd on the whiteboard. I discussed how African tribes catch monkeys by cutting holes in them, sticking a banana in them and then hanging them from trees. The monkey will stick his hand into the hole of the gourd, grab the fruit and when he can't get both back out, he will be stuck. Hours later, the hunter returns to find the monkey still struggling to remove the fruit. All it would have to do to avoid capture is let go and leave the temptation of the trap... but the monkey is helpless to its own greed. It is doomed.

Aren't we a lot like that monkey? Aren't we also slaves to the world's little sin traps? Aren't we just seconds from falling victim to the returning huntsman?

I tell you friends, I am tired of seeing the people I love victimized by sin. They are chained... They are trapped. They are addicted... and all they have to do is let go!

"Daisy"
Switchfoot

Daisy, give yourself away
Lookup at the rain
The beautiful display
Of power and surrender
Giving us today
And she gives herself away

Rain, another rainy day
Comes up from the ocean
Give herself away
She comes down easy
On rich and dead the same
And she gives herself away
Let it go
Daisy,

Let it go Open up your fist
This fallen world
Doesn't hold your interest
It doesn't hold your soul
Daisy, let it go

Pain, give yourself a name
Call yourself contrition
Avarice of blame
Giving isn't easy
Neither is the rain
When she gives herself away
Daisy, why another day?
Why another sunrise
Who will take the blame
For all redemptive motion
And every rainy day
When he gives himself away
Let it go

Daisy, let it go
Open up your fist
This fallen world
It doesn't hold your interest
It doesn't hold your soul
Daisy, let it go

In the words of David's Psalms we see him working out the notion of contrition. Read these Psalms and take them to heart.

• Psalm 22
• Psalm 32
• Psalm 40
  
  

What are you hanging on to? What is keeping you from the Master? What chains you down? Let it go! Let it go today.