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| Photo by Kea Mowat on Unsplash |
As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.
~ Marion Anderson ~
Anchor Verse - Isaiah 40:31 (NRSVUE): “But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
You know that resentment you've been carrying? That grudge you're nursing against somebody who wronged you? Here's the hard truth — you're not just holding them down. You're holding yourself down. And until you let it go, you will never soar the way God designed you to.
That quote from Marian Anderson — it's from today's Touchstones meditation, and folks, it cuts right to the bone. Because in recovery, we know this feeling. We get tense. We tighten up. We say, 'I'm not talking to them until they apologize.' Or we hold out on a friend because we're waiting for them to admit they were wrong. And it feels justified. It feels like justice. But here's what's really happening — the longer you grip that resentment, the tighter it grips you.
The Touchstones reading puts it plainly: our lives can be much richer and more fulfilled when we let go of these expectations. We can stop manipulating. Stop drawing forth the responses we want from people. Because our pouting, our silence, our conditions — they don't punish the other person. They imprison us.
Now, here's where Scripture meets this truth head-on. Isaiah 40:31 — NRSVUE — says this: 'But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.'
And so the question for every Christian in recovery this morning is simple: what are you still holding onto? What claim are you making on somebody else's behavior that's keeping you from your own freedom?
Step four asks us to make a searching and fearless moral inventory. And most of us, when we do that, we find resentments we didn't even know we were carrying. Little ones. The guy who cut you off in traffic. The family member who still doesn't get it. The friend who never showed up when you needed them.
And the Touchstones meditation says it perfectly: 'No one else need stand in the way of our pleasure of being adult men.' That's freedom. That's emotional sobriety. Not waiting for someone else to change so you can finally be okay. But letting go of your claims on others so you can be free — right now. Today.
Because here's what resentment does. It makes life boring. It makes life small. You think you're protecting yourself, but you're just building a smaller cage.
If this is speaking to you this morning, do me a favor — hit that like button, share it with another man in recovery who needs to hear it. And if you haven't already, subscribe to Sacred Sobriety. We're building a community of men pressing forward with steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, one day at a time.
Let me pray over us this morning. Lord, we bring you the resentments we've been carrying — the ones we know about and the ones we've buried. Loosen our grip. Remind us that you are the one who renews our strength. Give us the courage to let go of our claims on others, so we can mount up with wings like eagles. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Today's Touchstones reading closes with this — and I want you to take this with you: 'Today, I will let go of my claims on others so I can be free to soar.
Until next time, folks. Be blessed, be encouraged.
