{"id":677,"date":"2026-09-04T05:28:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/?p=677"},"modified":"2026-09-04T05:28:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:28:31","slug":"with-man-this-is-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/2026\/09\/04\/with-man-this-is-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"With Man This Is Impossible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- POST TITLE: With Man This Is Impossible -->\n<style>@import url('https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css2?family=Oswald:wght@400;500;700&family=Lora:ital,wght@0,400;0,500;1,400&display=swap');\n.gbi{--bg:#DCD6CB;--darkest:#23211D;--mid:#6B5B4A;--heading:#483525;--cool:#545552;--light:#EBE8E4;--surface-verse:#E3DDD2;--surface-deep:#D3CDC2;font-family:'Lora',Georgia,serif;color:var(--darkest);background:var(--bg);max-width:720px;margin:2em auto;padding:2.5em 2em;line-height:1.7;font-size:1.05em}\n.gbi .eyebrow{font-family:'Oswald',sans-serif;font-size:.85em;letter-spacing:.18em;text-transform:uppercase;color:var(--mid);font-weight:500;margin:0 0 .4em}\n.gbi h2{font-family:'Oswald',sans-serif;font-weight:500;font-size:1.3em;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;color:var(--mid);margin:2em 0 .7em;border-bottom:1px solid var(--heading);padding-bottom:.3em}\n.gbi .verse{font-family:'Lora',Georgia,serif;font-style:italic;font-size:1.08em;line-height:1.6;letter-spacing:normal;background:var(--surface-verse);border-left:4px solid var(--heading);padding:1.1em 1.4em;margin:1.4em 0;color:var(--darkest)}\n.gbi .verse-cite{display:block;font-style:normal;font-family:'Oswald',sans-serif;font-size:.82em;letter-spacing:.1em;color:var(--mid);margin-top:.6em;text-transform:uppercase}\n.gbi .divider{border:none;border-top:1px solid var(--heading);margin:2em auto;width:80px}\n.gbi p{margin:0 0 1.1em}\n.gbi .pull{font-family:'Oswald',sans-serif;font-weight:500;font-size:1.15em;letter-spacing:.04em;color:var(--darkest);border-top:1px solid var(--heading);border-bottom:1px solid var(--heading);padding:1em 0;margin:1.6em 0;text-align:center;line-height:1.4}\n.gbi .gbi-deep{background:var(--surface-deep);border-left:4px solid var(--cool);padding:1.1em 1.4em;margin:1.4em 0}\n@media (max-width:600px){.gbi{padding:1.6em 1.2em}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"gbi\">\n<p class=\"eyebrow\">Go Back In &middot; Week 3 &middot; Friday<\/p>\n<p>She has tried to let go. That is the part nobody sees. From the outside she looks like a woman who will not release her grown child &mdash; the calls, the opinions, the fear that wears the clothes of love &mdash; and that is true. What is also true is that she has tried, honestly, to open her hands, and she cannot.<\/p>\n<p>She has prayed the sentence. She has meant it. And by the afternoon her fingers are closed again around the same fear, because the grip is not a habit she can quit. It is fused to how much she loves him, and you cannot cut one out without the other.<\/p>\n<h2>The only honest question<\/h2>\n<p>This is exactly where the disciples are when the man walks away. They have watched someone who did everything right fail to get through the door, and they panic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"verse\">They were even more astonished and said to one another, &ldquo;Who then can be saved?&rdquo;<span class=\"verse-cite\">Mark 10:26 (BSB)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is the right question. If the man with everything going for him cannot let go and get in, what chance does anyone have? And Jesus does not soften it. He agrees with them &mdash; and then He turns it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"verse\">Jesus looked at them and said, &ldquo;With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.&rdquo;<span class=\"verse-cite\">Mark 10:27 (BSB)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"pull\">You were never going to pry your own fingers loose. That was never the plan.<\/p>\n<p>Read what He actually says. Not <em>try harder.<\/em> Not <em>want it more.<\/em> Impossible &mdash; for man. The whole week has been people putting things down, and Friday is the day it turns out the last grip does not answer to willpower at all. That is not the bad news. It is the entire gospel. The letting-go you cannot do, God can do in you.<\/p>\n<h2>The move<\/h2>\n<p>So she stops trying to generate the release and asks for it. Not &ldquo;God, help me let go&rdquo; as a lever she pulls, but &ldquo;God, I cannot, and I am asking You to do in me what I have proven I cannot do.&rdquo; And then, still not free, she picks up the phone and calls her son &mdash; not because she has finally released him, but because she has finally asked the only One who can make her.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gbi-deep\">\n<p>The man in Mark needed a miracle and did not stay for it. He heard &ldquo;impossible for man,&rdquo; felt the sorrow, and left before he heard &ldquo;but not with God.&rdquo; Friday is for everyone who has spent the week trying to do the impossible thing themselves and is finally tired enough to ask. The grip opens. Just not by your strength.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Go Back In &middot; Week 3 &middot; Friday She has tried to let go. That is the part nobody sees. From the outside she looks like a woman who will not release her grown child &mdash; the calls, the opinions,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-go-back-in"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SU_20260904_BLOG.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumbleup.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}