I was journaling about my life especially with this particular season and reflecting on how little I know about my future. I only know what’s next for the upcoming 6 weeks. After that, I have no idea what will happen, where I will be living or what I will be doing. (For my recent post about how our questions in life outnumber the answers, read here – hope it encourages you!)
Thoughts from my journal: “it is easy/tempting to grasp for anything and everything we can to feel as if we are in control – to find security in a job, a relationship, a place, etc. Yet, even in the striving of seeking these things – we only make things worse.”
This made me think about Harry Potter.
In the first book/movie, Harry, Ron and Hermione end up facing a series of challenges in hopes of finding the Sorcerer’s Stone. One of the first obstacles is Devil’s Snare. If you need to refresh your memory, you can watch the clip here.
According to Harry Potter Wikia, “Devil’s Snare is a plant with the magical ability to constrict or strangle anything in its surrounding environment or something that happens to touch it. Struggling or resistance to Devil’s Snare will cause the plant to exert a greater force of constriction.”
Basically, they are struggling against this plant and fighting to become free. The more they moved, the tighter the plant strangled them – only making it worse.
We seek control in our lives but, in essence, that ends up controlling us.
Hermione remembers that you need to relax and stop moving. Once she does so, she becomes free and is in a space underneath the plant – a place she wasn’t aware existed. Unfortunately, Harry and Ron are still stuck and didn’t know where she went.
When we stop fighting against that feeling of being in control, of figuring out our plans, of gaining knowledge or understanding…that’s when we can become free and are often led to a place we wouldn’t have gotten to on our own.
What especially touched me was watching what happened next. Hermione says, “Do what I say — trust me!” and Harry eventually becomes still and joins her, which frightens Ron even more, causing him to fight against the plant – once again, only making it worse for himself.
Isn’t that how we are with God? He is calling us towards him, asking us to simply trust Him. Sometimes we do, and sometimes we don’t. While I’d like to say I’m like Harry and immediately trust God, there are many things in my life that are uncertain right now, thus making it hard to simply relax and not make effort to move – to plan, to try and figure things out on my own. I am often Ron, struggling to believe that God is fighting for me and will work things out.
Even though Ron panics and threatens his life through his inability to be still, Hermione remembers a spell that sets Ron free.
God desires us to stop striving on our own because He doesn’t want us to get strangled by the pain of our own effort and striving. When we let go and give control over to Him, He takes care of us and leads us forward in a way that we couldn’t have seen before.
We will not always understand, but we are called to be still — to take a step back, to trust and to let go. While we should strive to be like Harry in steadfastly trusting God and his timing/ways, we can be at peace knowing that He will also be there for us in our times of being like Ron.
We can quiet our racing minds and hearts, and even in times where we don’t see the end or how things will work out, we can listen to the voice that says “trust me” and know He is there.
Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.”(Proverbs 3:5-6)
The Beauty In Our Brokenness 
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