Let Benjamin Go

Imagine that you have been homeless for over a year. You lost your job, your home, and your entire livelihood.  One day while walking through a park, someone hands you a flyer advertising a brand new shelter several blocks away. The shelter will be providing meals, transitional housing, and job placement. The only stipulation is that you are not allowed to bring any extra items with you. The shelter has no extra storage space; they only have room for the essentials that they will be providing. You are very excited about this prospect and definitely want to go, but you are apprehensive because you are pushing a shopping cart full of items from your past. They represent memories of people, places and things that made up the fabric of your life: a faded plane ticket stub, an old tattered quilt, a single tarnished earring, an old jacket, and a piece of a china set, a torn photo, or a ragged wallet.

Essentially this shopping cart is the only thing standing between you and a new start.  Although the items in the cart are things you have a right to keep (you had either earned them from your hard work or you received them from friends or loved ones), you know that you will have to choose between the old stuff and a future. What would you do?

How difficult would it be for you to leave the old items behind? Would these items from your past be more valuable than your future?

For most of us, it would be a “no-brainer”. Right away, we would respond, “Yes, I would most certainly leave that stuff behind!” Not only would there be no contest in our minds, we would even question the sanity of someone who would dare sacrifice their future for a cart full of old “junk”.

Now let us take the same scenario and change a few of the details. Instead of being homeless, suppose that you had been stuck in a rut and have been offered the opportunity of your dreams. It could be a career opportunity, the chance at a healthy relationship, or the start of a business venture. You fill in the blank. However, just like the homeless scenario, you would still have to leave some things behind in order to possess this new life. Let us look again at the shopping cart.

Instead of the earring, you have a scar over your heart from a failed relationship; instead of the quilt, you keep a protective covering over your heart because you are afraid to trust others; instead of the photo, your mind rehearses scenes from your life when you were rejected, abandoned, or abused; instead of a faded plane ticket, you are held back by fear and mediocrity due to some past failure; instead of the piece of china, you are bitter and find it difficult to give love to others; instead of the jacket you are depressed and grieving because you lost someone that you loved; and instead of the tattered wallet, there is a hole in your heart because you have not been able to forgive someone and believe that they should be paid back for their actions.

Now if someone said that you had to let go of all of those things in order to receive the new opportunity waiting around the corner of your life, would you be able to do it? How easy would it be for you to say, “Yes, yes. I would leave that stuff in a heartbeat!”

In the first scenario, it was easier to understand how crazy it would be to keep a shopping cart full of stuff rather than take the opportunity to start over. However when it comes to the spiritual and emotional shopping carts of our lives, it is not always so easy to leave behind past hurt, pain, unforgiveness, and depression, even when we know that these “items” could prevent us from experiencing a fulfilling life. Just like the homeless person’s tangible possessions held great value and meaning, some of us today “cherish” our crippled past and present. It is not that we do not want a better future, but many of us have become so attached to our pain and our fears that we do not know how to let go.

The issue of letting go is something that has troubled human beings for thousands of years. You will find many examples in the Bible of men and women who faced emotional and spiritual challenges. Those who chose to partner with God to fight and overcome their challenges were able to achieve great things and experience a dynamic life. An example of this was Jacob.

In this book, we will examine Jacob’s struggle to overcome fear, grief, and parental regret, in order to secure a prosperous future for his family.

As we examine Jacob’s journey, we will be able to draw parallels between Jacob’s experience and our o