SURRENDER IS BOTH a definite decision and a lifelong process that happens day by day. It starts when we consciously decide to hand over our will and life to God. But it does not end there. It is never a one-shot experience. Each new day we will need to renew our act of surrender and offer ourselves to God again. Shifting from a self-centered lifestyle to a God-centered one takes a lifetime.
– Trevor Hudson
One Day at a Time: Discovering the Freedom of 12-Step Spirituality
(via Upper Room Daily Reflections)
It’s not to be energized when I’m with people who embody what the quote above is talking about. In the midst of some conversations whether it’s younger Christians or older Christians, I get the sense that learning to "surrender" as well as the actual practice of "surrendering" is a great battle.
We tempted to rationalize our choices and preferences. We judge one view as less valid as we justify our own as having a better conscience. In short, in all honesty we pick and choose our "rights and wrongs". In reaction to rigid moralizing, we easily slip into a self-appointed moral code where we are the center. This is a understandable move since in our context, we have tended to be under pressure to fit into other people’s expectations, so there is a drive to differentiate ourselves from those who we perceive to be exerting themselves. So the poles are between ourselves and others, and thus for our own sanity better flowing ourselves than forcing to live for others.
This God-centered talk lifts us from these seemingly opposing poles of self and others. It breaks us our of the endless cycle of pleasing ourselves or pleasing others. The kind of "surrender" I’m talking about is not a mindless one. It’s not blind faith. And yet, we also don’t want to be too calculative and paralyze ourselves by too much measuring.
So in the midst of this definite decision of surrender, and day by day surrendering … it’s more about freeing ourselves from our greatest enemy ourselves and our prejudices, and also freeing ourselves from the imposition of other people’s agenda, towards the One who truly has our best interest in mind. It’s faith posture, I admit. Still, to me it’s the better bet. Perhaps, some initial rewards has convinced me … 🙂 There’s more to come.
thank you for this. it’s such a big struggle for me at this stage in life when i have to decide what comes next after uni. there’s so much i wanna do, and so much others are telling me to do.. sometimes i wish surrender was easier!
markus – after uni is always a tough period. Don’t worry too much about making mistakes. I think for most people what is before us are a variety of good options, and not a black and white one right way verses another is a wrong way.