Benevolent Detachment

Have you ever seen a gnarly tree?  They are not particularly attractive – they twist, turn and look like they’ve been injured.  If you’ve seen the Lord of the Rings, you may remember Treebeard, one of the Ents (the living and walking trees) who befriended Merry and Pippin and let them ride in his branches as he walked along to assist them in their hunt for Frodo. Treebeard was a gnarly tree…  

It is a gnarly time to be a human being.  And God cares about your humanity… 

John Eldredge writes these words, and gnarly is a good descriptor of the era in which we live.  Twisted, rough, crooked, distorted, dangerous, hazardous, precarious, insecure – all are definitions for the word gnarly.  Some days more than others, I am tempted to feel those emotions as I look around at our country and culture.

John, along with his team at Wild at Heart, have constructed an app which has been a rescue for me.  Named The One Minute Pause, it gives space during my day to breathe, come away from the world’s problems and my own problems, and place them where they belong – on the shoulders of God.

We, as frail  human beings, were not ever expected to carry our burdens on our own; they are simply too heavy for us.  In The One Minute Pause app, the first words you hear are

I give everyone and everything to you, God.

Coming from the verse ,

Cast all your cares upon God, for He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

I had not heard the term Benevolent Detachment before.  I love the word Benevolent – meaning kind, compassionate, tenderhearted.  It sounds warm and loving.  Yet when benevolent is paired with the word detachment, they appear to be opposites. Jesus wants us to love people, of course, and to care about the circumstances surrounding them, but He also wants us to understand that we cannot save anyone.  We have a part to play, yet we need to be careful not to overstep into the realm God plays  in people’s lives.  It’s a little like staying in your own lane, yet driving responsibly to protect you and the people around you. 

If you look at the life of Jesus, this is exactly how he lived.  He loved well but was never dependent on people’s opinions – negative or positive – he simply cared deeply but never entangled himself in order to coerce or control.  If someone rejected Him, He walked away.  When someone wanted to be with Him, He allowed it, yet at times even He would walk away when He needed rest and solitude.  He knew He was living in a human body and had the same limitations our bodies possess.  He knew he needed rest and quiet time away from people, and he knew He was totally dependent on his Father, just as we are.

Thinking through your hours and minutes today, what or who do you need to let go of, to benevolently detach from?

Your children?

Your parents?

The text you just received?

Your expectations of the perfect life you had hoped would someday appear?

Your worries about finances?

Your husband?

Your planning for the future?

The number of likes you received from your latest social media post?

The frustrations of your job?

There are times in my past when I had the crazy idea that I was in control of my own destiny. I believed I must be the one to figure stuff out on my own, and it was up to me to make it work.  But I have learned that I have no such power.  The verse 

Cast all your cares upon God, for He cares for you

reminds me that I don’t have to carry that load, and there’s no way in the world that  I can.  Jesus has offered to bear it all, so why not let Him?  

There are many instances when we simply cannot fix our own or others’ problems.  We can’t change other people, it’s actually quite tough to bring change in our own lives.  But we can seek God and His wisdom, surrendering ourselves and others to Him.  There is simply no other way to live in peace and contentment.

If you are interested in downloading the free app, simply type into your Google search bar: One Minute Pause App and begin to give your cares and your worries to your Heavenly Father. There’s no one who cares like He does.