Releasing the Outcome

We are trained by our culture to be outcome-focused. Success is measured by results. Progress is charted. Goals are set and met or not met. This is not entirely wrong — outcomes matter, and faithfulness often produces fruit. But when outcome-attachment becomes the primary lens, we find ourselves hostage to results that are frequently beyond our control.

Commit thy way unto the LORD. The Hebrew word translated 'commit' here is galal — to roll. Roll your way onto God. The image is of something too heavy to carry being transferred to stronger shoulders. Not handed off lazily, but deliberately moved.

Releasing the outcome is one of the hardest spiritual disciplines because it feels like giving up. It feels like saying 'it doesn't matter.' But that is not what it is. It matters deeply. The relationship matters. The job matters. The diagnosis matters. The prodigal child matters. Releasing the outcome does not mean pretending otherwise.

It means trusting that God's involvement in what you love is not diminished by your releasing it. In fact, there is a strange and counterintuitive mercy at work here: many of the outcomes we most desire are actually blocked by our grip on them. Our need to control the relationship damages it. Our anxiety about the job affects our performance in it.

When we release the outcome — genuinely, prayerfully — we create space for God to work in ways our managing had been inadvertently preventing.

What outcome are you most attached to right now? What would it mean to roll it, deliberately, onto the shoulders of One who is strong enough to carry it?