As I volunteered at Kids Church last weekend, I had an encounter with a new preschooler who had just moved from the toddlers class. Let’s call him Jacob. At the beginning of the class, the kids had activities they could choose from, and Jacob was at the coloring page area, trying to work his way through a coloring page depicting a story from the book of Genesis.

I sat beside him and tried to engage him, asking questions about him. Basic questions a 3-year-old would answer. I kept trying to engage him, and asking more questions, even after the initial salvo. “So, what’s your favorite color?” “Do you already go to school?” “Do you have brothers and sisters?” At some point he stopped talking and just kept coloring. When I still persisted, he gave me a blank coloring page and some crayons, and then kept on coloring. He basically gave me the hint, he was done talking.

When I think of that encounter with Jacob, I am reminded of how at times I tend to try too hard, when all that’s needed is to sit still, to keep quiet, to let go. There are things in life I can never control, and to relinquish my grasp at such control may be the most freeing thing I could ever experience.

In relationships. People have different ways of dealing with things, with emotions, with issues and problems. We cannot always solve things in one sitting, because sometimes it takes more, some days it doesn’t even need a long conversation. We just need to understand and process; and even that is different for each one of us. Some take forever, others move on pretty fast. It doesn’t make one any better, just unique.

At work. We will always find ourselves faced with a mountain of tasks, with work that needs to be done; and it will always seem unending. And yet even at work, we need to know when to let go. Sometimes it’s taking that quick break for a cup of coffee and a good conversation, and then you can go back and start rolling. Sometimes, it’s just calling it a day, making time for family, and getting a good night’s sleep, for tomorrow is another day. We just need to let go.

How do we let go? Easier said than done, because at the heart of the ability to let go is TRUST. To be able to trust that there is a Sovereign Hand at work in the lives of people — your own and that of others. To trust that God is in control of all things, there is no other way. That’s the only path to freedom — letting go.