"Turn that wood loose!"

Have you faced a difficulty or hardship in your life and carried it with you for some time?   Have you?   Maybe you suffered a broken relationship because the one you loved chose to break that covenant.  It was 19 years ago...and you're still alone....still bitter. 

Maybe you lost a mom or dad to cancer and you still have their clothes hanging in the closet.  It seems like yesterday, but you buried them 29 years ago. You're not going to throw mom's clothes away!  She loved that burgandy dress that she stitched with her own hands!

Or perhaps your feelings were hurt by someone in the church.  You've chosen to stay away because you really don't won't to be around that person.  In fact, you haven't been to church in over a year.  Come to think of it...nobody from the church has even called you to say "We miss you."

Hardship and difficulty is something that is a part of life.  Job said "man born of a woman is but a few days and filled with trouble."  You will have issues to deal with and to go through.  "Well I just wish my life was normal," you say.  Barbara Johnson was so right -- "Normal is just a setting on your dryer!"

The Apostle Paul knew hardship.  It went further than hurt feelings.  2 Corinthians 11:24,25  records this man's challenges in just a few words --  "Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea...".

Paul's missionary journeys were filled with trial and hardship.  As you read the Book of Acts you become very aware that this man was on the hit list all the time.  When he was on his way to Rome to go before Caesar, the ship ran aground in the midst of a storm and crashed into a sandbar.  Lives were spared, but the ship was completely destroyed! 

Paul instructed those who could swim to swim to shore!  The rest were told to grab a plank or a piece of the ship and make their way to shore.  Are you holding on to a piece of your shipwreck?   Have you been floating around and holding on to something that's dead?  Is bitterness robbing you of moving on?  Is hurt keeping your from getting to the next level in your life?

Make sure that the crisis that you face is only a "chapter" in your life and not the whole book.  Acts 27:44 says..."The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land in safety."  Turn that wood loose!  It's suppose to get you to the shore safely.  But it's not intended for you to hang onto the rest of your life.  Grief?  You must deal with it.  Loss?  You must deal with it.  Hurt feelings?  You must deal with it.   Turn that wood loose!  Move on to a new chapter in your life.  God's waiting to help you write it.