I traveled recently. While on the plane, the flight attendant prepared to give their instructions. If you’ve flown quite a bit, one begin to feels like they could give the spiel in their place. However, out of respect, I typically stop what I’m doing, and give my attention to the individuals providing directives for my safety. I sat tall (or as tall I could) in my seat. I was sitting at the very front of the plane, not because it was First Class (someday) but because I purchased a last minute fare and my boarding group felt like it was in the category of Z. Looking directly in the eyes of the attendant, who by the way was rocking a fierce blonde short cropped cut, said something that never quite struck me in the gazillion times I’d flown before. He said, “In case of an emergency, leave everything.” As my soror, Minister Vernestine Kent would say, “That made my baby leap!” If we’ve not learned anything in the year of our Lord 2020, we must in case of any emergency, leave everything. If whatever you are harboring has not served your wellness, it does not deserve to go with you.

If the Lord tarries and grants us invitation to venture into 2021, we mustn’t weigh ourselves down with what does not warrant attachment to our mind, our spirit, our psyche. We’ve experienced deep loss and uncertainty, as much as our generation can fathom. Tasks as simple as going to the grocery store has morphed to going to the ER and being on a ventilator. Very little continues to make sense in my little head. However each day that I have awaken, am able to look around the room, get out of bed and begin the day, I pause to say, “Thank you Lord,” because it is not for anything I’ve done, or not done, just His impeccable grace. How may I repay Him for all His benefits toward me? I cannot. But I can elect to create a less burdened journey and not carry baggage of disappointment, disturbance, disgust and defeat with me. As my friend in my head said on the flight, “Leave everything.”

I’m not sure how you are set up, but I love a good bag with compartments -those on full display, but particularly those which are hidden. While outwardly we may profess and seek external accountability for actualizing our declarations, only God knows those secret things that we are clinging to in the spirit, while remaining discombobulated in our hearts, hoping that people, places and things shift in a manner that will settle us. But here’s the thing – only through the authority of God will our hope materialize into something else. And until that happens, it is neither our responsibility nor God’s expectation for us to do the heavy lifting. In other words, God’s heart reflects that we “leave everything.” And if that is too abrupt, might I take pleasure in remixing the sentiment by stating, “leave everything to God.”

So many beautiful demonstrations have manifested in 2020. Concurrently, equally as haunting exhibitions have accompanied the year as well. God has ushered us through them all – amidst our laughter, our tears, our fear, our pain, our joy, our sadness, our hope, our resolve. And as we continue to learn and live by leaving everything to God, we will find ourselves as strong navigators, with complete reliance upon the captain of our soul. If you do not leave 2020 with anything beside your person, your peace or your righteous mind, you are blessed by God. The flight attendant instructs us to leave everything because when we are in an entanglement for our safety, the burdens of things that do not matter will weigh us down and prevent us from assuming said safety. God always provides a way of escape, but He doesn’t condition this promise by instructing us to bring resources with us. Leave everything that does not benefit your wellness, add value to your worth, conjure your happiness, incubate your joy, or support your sustainability. May we forever leave everything to the One who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think. He is still in control. He is still on throne. He is still sovereign. He still sees all. He still is the great I AM. Leave everything. Then live.