Go drop your whisk on the kitchen floor. Go ahead; I’ll wait.

How did that feel? Scary? Risky? Weirdly liberating? There are a billion things we try to control over the holidays, including other people’s emotions. The thing is, I don’t have to make others have good feelings. I just act like I do. Letting go feels scary, maybe risky, but also weirdly liberating.

Thanksgiving is very close, and I am super tempted to try and create a PERFECT holiday experience for everyone. (Read my article from last year “Oh no! I ruined Thanksgiving.”) If I do it right, maybe this time everyone will be happy the whole time?

I know our motivations are 99% good in this, but the truth is, the more I want people to have good feelings, the more controlling I actually become. I start needing PROOF that they are happy, and what I really want is proof that they’re happy with me. I pretend I can climb inside peoples’ heads, trying to figure out exactly what they’re thinking (of me) and what I can do to keep them from having bad feelings (about me).

I don’t have to hang on to their approval so tightly. I just act like I do.

So this year I’m going to climb out, stand up, saunter into the kitchen, pick up my whisk and let it fall from my hand onto the kitchen floor. It’s ok to let it go. I can let my need to control others’ emotions drop to the floor like dropping this whisk. It feels scary, maybe risky, but that’s the Gospel that sets us free.

It’s impossible to read others’ minds or control their emotions, but in Jesus, God has parted the veil into his own thoughts and feelings about me! (1 Cor. 2) And he is pleased with me. Do you want to know that you’re valuable? Listen to Jesus saying to you “are you not of more worth than many sparrows”? Do you want to know that you belong, like an anticipated holiday guest? See Jesus say to you, “I go to prepare a place for you. If it weren’t true, I would’ve told you.”

In scripture, we do get to “read God’s mind,” insofar as he has told us the things our mortal brains can handle! And what we read is that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters, and that we will be his guests at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, celebrating in the perfect certainty of God’s love for us and, finally, in perfect unity with one another.

So when you let that whisk fall recklessly out of your hand, know that I’m doing it, too, and let’s remember this together: - “The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:5b CSB

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