They are common words in our passionate world: let it go! We all know the deal when those words flash across our screen. Our preferences and biases, likes and dislikes, dreams and aspirations, disappointments and frustrations, and responses to the good and bad of the world around us create tremors of emotion when there's contention. All too often they burst into hot flashes of anger, especially in the social media outlets where we can vent in solitude. Fearful of destructive and critical reactions we often advise each other to let it go, move on, or step back, ways to fughedaboudit. It's not always such a troubling decision, to move beyond a controversial position. Shoot, sometimes we should just look the other way rather than stir further human conflict. Overlooking an offense is is a virtue if you're reading Solomon (see Proverbs 19:11). There are times, however, when we must cling to the values and beliefs that guide us. In Scripture, it is learning the discipline to hold fast. You know, the equally familiar idiom of getting a grip.
It's a contentious world. We humans are good at drawing lines, establishing boundaries, developing our case, stating our position. We rant these things to the man or woman in the mirror with impunity. And, we'll argue about anything these days---wear a mask or not? Supporting BLM, kneeling during the National Anthem, having a chip implanted, public school or private, reparations, candidates for election, mail in ballots, what to name our favorite pancake syrup, the mascot to the Washington NFL team, even whose french fries are best?????????? Lay out the facts, punctuate the language, get it said. Or, just walk away. Such inconsequential things don't always deserve a rant. Let it go! That's another game of the times too, what matters and what doesn't. Silencing people of faith is the new censorship.
Ramp it up. The topics aren't always so purposefully insignificant or minor. There's some pretty heavy stuff on the grapevine these days, certainly more noteworthy than pancake syrup. The reach of government, personal autonomy in health decisions, secularism on the rise, the new normals in education, the suddenly aggressive Marxist ideology, and so many more national agenda items are perplexing and threatening. The real sad thing is the relative silence of the Christian world. Of course, there are a few visible spokesmen and women, the personalities of faith who speak a word on occasion. But, good old pew people, beyond a word across the back fence, simply let it go. Some of them will speak in a voting booth on November 3, 2020. In 2016, almost forty percent of our citizens stayed home.
To hold fast is a Christian discipline. It is a translation of a descriptive term meaning to hold your position or keep yourself focused. Many older translations render the term to cleave to something or cling. It is, however, a more dynamic term, portraying a since of fixation far beyond the grasp of arms or hands. Use in the New Testament depicts an unswerving commitment to an idea or principle. Meaning, we should hold fast to our values or beliefs in a world of changing ideals. They should be lived boldly and visibly. These values should be the light that shines and the salt that seasons.
Jesus taught his followers the parable of the seed, perhaps more appropriately the parable of the soil. In this parable, the seed, the Word of God, was sown on four soils: the path, the rocks, the thorns, and the good soil. In summary, he concluded that,
As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the Word of God, hold it fast in
an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
Luke 8: 15, ESV
The instruction is to hold fast to the Word of God in order to bear fruit in this crazy, mixed-up world. This is how Christian influence shines, seasons, and touches the world around us. Believing Scripture, yielding to the precepts of faith, and living the Christian life is central to our assignment to be light and salt in this world. It happens effectively, that is, in a fruit producing way, when we hold fast the Word of God. We don't waver, let it go, move on, step back, or get a life. We hold fast.
Fughedaboutit? Not hardly.
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