Today’s Prayer to Passage will be from the book ‘Tao Te Ching’ by Lao Tzu, Gia-Fu Feng, and Jane English.

Today I pray, “Dear God, Arising within our collective Spirit is a desire to make a difference. What is most liberating in this matter? Amen.”

Following my prayer, I held the closed book in my hands and opened it to this passage:

“To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.”
—LAO TZU

I took an extended learning class four years ago, in which students were assigned the opportunity to create projects. Our projects were intended to be created by us… for others. We were assigned to be the leaders of our projects for a portion of development, turning over leadership to a person willing to carry it out to completion. The purpose of this design in the coursework was to teach us leadership and self-expression. And part of great leadership is delegating well and not possessing that which we once created.

My project was a website. I created a social network where mothers could log on to connect and share their experiences of motherhood with one another. The website project was delegated to a web designer and a church leader. And I gave the website to the church and to all mothers on earth. The experience of letting it go was far more fulfilling than owning it. The website still existed to make a difference that really mattered to people. That was why I created it in the first place. Not to lay claim; to do the work and let it go.