I’ve resisted a bit (ok – a lot – still resisting to certain degrees) with what I’m about to write.  I resisted for a year the word that has become my word for 2025 – that is not to say I’ve fully accepted it, but I’ve acknowledged that it is my word: Surrender. 

Last year, when my life started to unravel there was this post floating around on Facebook with a picture of Moses’ mother releasing the basket that held her youngest son into the Nile.  It was titled “The Greatest Form of Worship is Letting Go.”  I have thought a lot about my previous post about the things we carry.  I’ve caught myself a lot in conversations lately saying, “there’s a message in that” and it did not escape my notice when I was writing about Owen’s surfer toy that I typed those very words in parentheses after it.  In my final edits I deleted it because I thought my post was that message, but there has been a tugging at my heart – what I’m writing now is that message.  What are you carrying that you can’t let go of?  That you can’t surrender?

“A man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.  The woman became pregnant and had a son.  She saw there was something special about him and hid him.  She hid him for three months.  When she couldn’t hide him any longer she got a little basket-boat made of papyrus, waterproofed it with tar and pitch, and placed the child in it.  Then she set it afloat in the reeds at the edge of the Nile.” (Exodus 2:1-3 MSG)

Can you imagine?  Your three month old son surrendered to the river.  I Googled Surrender after acknowledging it was my word for the year.  That whether or not I wanted it to be we would be cohabitants for the coming year and I needed to know what was expected.  Surrender in the Biblical sense is the act of fully giving oneself to God’s will and authority, and relinquishing one’s own desires and plans and control.  Right out of the gate I am instantly overwhelmed and thrilled that someone else will be making all the decisions for me.  Yet, I’m finding I only want to relinquish some of the things in my life – the things I don’t want to deal with.  But Jesus is very clear on this matter:

“Then Jesus went to work on His disciples.  “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.  You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.  Don’t run from suffering; embrace it.  Follow me and I’ll show you how.  Self-help is no help at all.  Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.  What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself?  What could you ever trade your soul for?” (Matthew 16:24-26 MSG)

I love that line “Then Jesus went to work on His disciples” until I realize He’s working on me too.  See in this passage Jesus has just told his disciples that He is headed to Jerusalem and He is going to surrender Himself into the hands of the religious leaders, to be beaten, killed, and on the third day rise from the dead.  He’s headed to the cross – He’s fully surrendered to His Father’s will. 

His disciples’ response, Peter’s response is such a human response – it’s our response, “Impossible, Master! That can never be!” (Matthew 16:22b MSG).  And Jesus looks at Peter and without hesitation tells him, “Peter, get out of my way.  Satan, get lost.  You have no idea how God works.” (Matthew 16:23 MSG).  You have no idea how God works – ouch.  Yet, Peter isn’t alone – it’s hard to surrender the things that we love, it’s hard to surrender the things that are important to us, it’s hard to surrender the way we think it should go and submit to God’s plan.  When it should be the opposite.  Too often I have heard people say “tomorrow is not promised” and yet we live everyday like we’re in the driver’s seat.  We live like we are in control and then something happens that makes us uncomfortable and we realize we’re not the one driving.  The irony in all of this is God is giving you that choice.  To trust Him or try it your way.

I think of the response Jesus gave the young man who asked what he must do to obtain eternal life and Jesus tells him to sell everything or give it to the poor and to follow Him – let Jesus be the leader of His life:

“That was the last thing the young man expected to hear.  And so, crestfallen, he walked away.  He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go.” (Matthew 19:22 MSG)

He was holding on tight to a lot of things.  We are holding on tight to a lot of things. 

“It was very sad, he thought.  The things men carried inside.  The things men did or felt they had to do.”  (Tim O’Brien ‘The Things They Carried’)

“Jesus looked hard at them and said, ‘No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself.  Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.’” (Matthew 19:26 MSG)

Like Moses’ mother and the young man we have a choice.  We can choose to surrender those things that are precious to us to the Nile (i.e. God) and see what the fruits of our faith will produce.  After all, Moses was brought right back to his mother that day.  Think of what would have been lost if she hadn’t fully submitted herself to the will of God.  Even further, think of what we would have lost if Jesus had given in to the ideas of his disciples.  Or we can hold tight to those things like the young man – or like Owen did with his surfer toy that now collects dust on his shelf – and miss out on the adventure of eternity. 

“What’s the price of a pet canary?  Some loose change, right?  And God cares what happens to it even more than you do.  He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail – even numbering the hairs on your head!  So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk.  You’re worth more than a million canaries.”  (Matthew 10:31)

Some practical steps to surrender:

·         Getting to know God by spending time in His word.

·         Praying with an open heart (have an open dialogue with God)

·         Journaling about the ways you’ve seen God’s ways be better than yours in the past.

·         Memorize scripture