Too often, I think "surrender" sounds like giving up. Giving up power. Giving up the fight. I imagine Generals Lee and Grant at Appomattox or a tattered white flag waving in a Bugs Bunny cartoon (07:14):
In this fourth week at Willow Creek's Leadership Institute for Transformation (LIFT) in the "Leader's Soul" course, we are talking about surrendering ourselves with a daily prayer to God. In remembering our baptism, we daily die and are renewed as God's children.We can again grasp the promises God gives us and know we are forgiven our sin and made righteous through Christ. So, how does a daily practice help remember us these promises?
For me, speaking out loud or giving voice to a prayer that re-establishes me each day is helpful; otherwise, the noise of the world can begin to hum and buzz, kind of like mosquito's wings, and I get distracted by it.
Fortunately, unlike Bugs and Yosemite Sam, I know I am not surrendering to an enemy or opponent. When I am asked to consider how I can daily stay in a place of surrender to God, I know I am surrendering to Creator God, Life-giving God, Mother God. (These are just a few of the nurturing metaphors in Scripture that describe who God is.)
Surrender here doesn't leave me defeated. Instead, yielding my life to God means letting go of my human instinct to plan, map, control and execute life. It means stop being an obstruction, stop hesitating, and stop tuning out God's calling, Yielding to God's leading, yielding to God's timing, yielding to God's direction, I can rest in the promises that God gives each of us. Amen.
Do you have a prayer, poem or practice that you use regularly to reconnect with God?
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