"The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving & relinquishing, gaining & losing, living & dying. The seed falls into the ground, breaks as the new shoot springs up. There must be a splitting & a breaking in order for a bud to form. The bud "lets go" when the flower forms. The calyx lets go of the flower. The petals must curl up & die in order for the fruit to form. the fruit falls, splits, relinquishes the seed. The seed falls into the ground...
There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go. At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops. If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.
It is easy to make a mistake here. "If God gave it to me", we say, "it's mine. I can do what I want with it." No. The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of - if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory."
-Elisabeth Elliot
Passion and Purity p. 163
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