Give Up

Do you believe in God?

Believer, Atheist and Agnostic alike all use the term 'give up' when they have reached the end of their rope with a difficult situation over which they seem to have no control.

'I give up' they say and move on.

So why those words to describe ending the process of banging your head against the wall?

My own personal theory is it comes from taking your issue and giving it up to God.  'Here God, you take it' which any faithful person will tell you its exactly what God wants you to do - give it up to him.

So what if you don't believe in God, or you 're just not sure?  The result of 'giving up' can still be the same - you're finally letting go of your grip on something that you really have no control over and allowing it to flow back into the universe where it belongs.

Sure, you can work harder, try harder, expect more, try to direct your life in such a way that it will all work out to your grand design and then you'll get hit by a bus 3 days before it all works out!  See, life happens - and what we make of it is how you will see that life.

Look at your life as a plane trip across the country.  You take off from NY and steer your nose toward California and hit auto pilot.  After that, you're almost never on target, in fact, 98% of the time you're off track, needing to make subtle - sometimes major - adjustments to keep you going.  There will be turbulence and smooth times.  All the time your auto pilot is making tiny course corrections keeping you largely on track to your goal, and above the weather.  But in trusting the auto pilot, you're allowing yourself to look out the window and enjoy the ride - to see the sights and marvel at the world around you.  Is that what you do, or do you watch the auto pilot, getting angry every time it has to make a minor course correction?

Bottom line:  there is is great power in understanding that which you have no control over and letting it go.  To know the extent of your persuasion over a situation is true power.  Because ultimately, the only thing you truly have control over is your reaction to life.  So how are you reacting to life?  Are you mad, trying to change the inevitable, or are you calm, resolute, and faithful that life will balance out and what is supposed to happen will?

"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans" sang John Lennon.  Plan all you want, but understand that life, like the weather, is going to roll through and all you can do is try to get above it.

And in the end, understand that if you feel yourself completely frustrated by life and asking yourself 'why does this always happen to me?' then its time to try something different: give up.  Just try it.  take the thing that frustrates you the most and just 'give it up.'  You'll see that trying to control something over which you have no control was a waste of spirit, and you now have the freedom to sit back, recline your seat and enjoy the ride - the autopilot has got it.

Know yourself don't NO yourself