October 10, 2011

the practice of clinging

"My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me."  Psalm 63:8

Yesterday in church we sang part of a song by Misty Edwards called "I Will Waste My Life."  The song is basically about leaving everything behind to follow after God, and we ended up singing the phrase "Just let me cling to You, Jesus" over and over again.  That got me thinking about what exactly "clinging" should look like in the life of a Christian. 

I'll confess, my mind immediately went to plastic wrap.  But it makes sense.  When you wrap something in plastic wrap, it clings to that object, taking on its shape and a lot of its characteristics.  It's a transparent material, so most of the time you're able to clearly see what's underneath.  And when plastic wrap sticks to itself instead of something else, it's rendered virtually useless.

This is kind of how clinging to God should look like.  We should strive to cling to Him in such a way that we start taking on His characteristics:  His love, His compassion, His power, His very image.  It's what we were created to do.  But we aren't meant to showcase these characteristics or this image as though they are our own ideas or creations.  Like transparent plastic wrap, we were meant to showcase the God to which we are clinging.  Transparency can be a scary thing, but it's often the only way we can allow God to work in our lives and to help others see God as well.

The fact is, we all have the tendency to cling to something.  Whether it's another person, something tangible like money, or something intangible like power, we will all try to find something to hold on to.  We can cling to one or more of these things and develop the wrong characteristics, or worse, we can cling to ourselves and remain stagnant.  Or we can cling to the One we were meant to cling to, and enjoy His love and instruction.  If you want to be more like God, clinging to Him is the very best start you can make.