During Holy week, Jeff and I went to The Avenue church for their Stations of the Cross. It’s not like the Stations of the Cross that I have ever experienced. There is a theme and each station has Scripture and directions for what to do at each of them, including praying. This year’s theme was “The Cup”. At one station, you had to put different colored sands in your cup for the sins that you struggle with most. I added a few different ones in my cup. A few stations later, we were instructed to pour out our cup of sand into the cross, as Jesus bore all of our sins. That was an overwhelming moment to think He took on everyone’s, not just my, sins.

We were instructed to take home the cups as a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice. When we got home, I noticed that there was still some sand in each of our cups. But we poured it all out, right? This got me thinking about how we can say that we’ve given something over to God, whether it’s a situation, or forgiving someone else or ourselves, but maybe we’ve held a small part back? Is it that we don’t trust God with it ALL or that we’re not ready to let go of the bitterness, envy, anger, shame or any other sin that goes with it?

One of the most quoted Scriptures is “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Being still means “let go” or “to drop” in Hebrew so instead of thinking about silence, it’s about letting God be God. It’s like that sand that stayed in the cup-its stubbornness to stay in the cup was not allowing God to be God. Take it from me, it’s hard to let go of controlling everything. But I have learned that there are things I would never have experienced, like God’s grace and mercy, if I hadn’t given up that control. Walking the Christian life isn’t about showing others what we can control. It’s about showing God working in our lives in ways we could never have imagined.