“At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Mark 10:22, NIV).

I received this message by text today from our chief of medicine, not uncommon during the pandemic: “Critical ED situation—4 ICU patients boarded there this morning. Please notify the ICU, CICU, Ward teams and MODs of the situation. Obviously, expediting discharges and transfers this morning is essential.”

Sometimes, to move patients where they need to be, other patients in those locations must be discharged.

Sometimes, to receive the goals Christ wants to add to my life, other things have to leave. Often these are good things that must go, and sometimes they are bad.

We certainly need to examine our lives to find activities, relationships and thoughts that are displeasing to God so we may move them out. Usually, the Holy Spirit is loud enough for us to realize the need on our own, but this may require accountability by objective Christian observers to help us make the moves. If we are struggling with displacing Godless activities, we should seek a Christian friend or pastor to help.

It may be more difficult to recognize the good things in our lives that need to leave, those things that crowd out God’s plan and deny His mission a space to grow. As Oswald Chambers wrote, “The thing that hinders God’s work (most) is not sin, but other claims which are right, but which at a certain point in their rightness conflict with the claims of Christ.”

We each need a periodic personal review of our relationships, time and money spent to discover that which needs to go. Some of us should consider recruiting Christian friends, Christian coaches (such as CMDA’s Life & Leadership Coaching) or ministers to help us review our lives and pray with us for God’s wisdom to move out the good and make room for His best.

None of us want God’s greatest mission for our lives stuck in the ER because we have not provided the emotional and temporal space for that mission to flourish.

What needs to go in my life, now?

Dear God,
Show me the things in my life that need to go to make room for your mission. Then give me the courage to tear them loose.
Amen