Surrender

Surrender means to give up.  If you’re a convict and you surrender it means you turn yourself into the police.

I have a friend going through SA that I talk to daily and support him as best I can who’s trying to learn this term.  Part of my profession in dealing with folks who are addicts and providing them skills to stop or surrender from what they have done.  Assisting them in getting rid of the unhealthy things and addictions that have taken over their life.  Some of which I am no stranger to.

Part of following Jesus means that I recognize he is in control of my life.  We are meant to surrender our lives to him because in going it on our own we tend to make a huge mess of things.  I also know from many experiences when I allow him to guide and direct me life seems much sweeter.  However, because I deal with control issues this is not an easy thing.  I have my life planned out, I am a creäture of habit and routine so I do the same things week after week.  I guess this is my way of controlling my life so that I don’t have to worry bout unexpected things popping up.  Many times in my life I have said I was surrendering over my will and life to Jesus to take control, that I had messed it up and I couldn’t do it and I needed his guidance and wisdom to take over.  Only to shortly later take back control and go back to doing it my way.

The other night I was on the way home from work and I really was pondering the idea of surrender.  What does it mean to really surrender?  Somehow I have foolishly believed that surrendering means I turn over my will and “wham”, “pow”, “zap” – it’s a done deal, Jesus is now in full control and I am just along for the ride.  It seems so much easier to do than it is.  I began praying,  “Jesus I don’t know what full surrendering is, but please help me figure it out.”

I gave my friend a call today and asked him what surrendering meant to him and how it was working in his life.  He said it’s a moment by moment choice.  There’s nothing magical about it, you recognize your being controlled by something else that is really unhealthy for you and as hard as you try to stop it, you can’t.  This is where you surrender and say “I can’t do this I need you God” comes into play.  It’s extremely difficult and it take a lot of hard work and practice to put it into place.  He told me he has to say it over and over, some days hundreds of times; because that’s the only way it will happen or else he goes back to his old unhealthy ways and habits.

As I thought through our conversations, the concept is clear I just have done a poor job of surrendering.  I don’t have a give up attitude, I keep pressing on.  I am heard headed in that way.  I will freely admit I don’t have my stuff altogether and that I am in need of guidance, wisdom and the power of Jesus to transform my life.  I want and need to surrender and am praying that Jesus will walk me through the process.

Do you feel like you can surrender easily?