Surrendering to God

 

  It's amazing what can truly happen,

how your life can be so grand;

when you give up trying on your own,

and let an angel hold your hand.

-Unknown

     Have you ever tried to make something happen that has been deemed by everybody to be impossible? If you have never taken on a challenge undaunted then I propose that you must do this as soon as you feel you have it within you not to give up. You'll have to go beyond passion, which everybody is so fond of calling it nowadays and go right into absolute obsession. That is where your fondest dreams lie. It is the hope you never give up and the quest you hold onto when everything else seems to fall by the wayside. Human beings were constructed for the non-surrendering life. Our brains are wired with the desire to solve even the most difficult problems. People's potential for achievement is unlimited according to tests which have been carried on for decades by teachers, scientists and neurosurgeons. If you read books by authors like Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale or Nancy and Sheila Ostrander you can get a sense of your personal power and what it takes to live up to your full potential. Human experience alone shows and tells us that all this is true.

     As children we struggle through some of our problems trying to solve challenges alone or figure out our own ways of dealing with difficulties. New math, when it was introduced mid-20th century in schools had parents scratching their heads and the children wondering where to look for the answers they needed. The old math was easier to convey to children by parents but new math was introduced to make math easier. None of the old, hard ways would help them write out equations correctly and so the children were left to figure it out on their own. It may have been a blessing in disguise. Educators started talking about independent thinkers shortly after the introduction so it was best to part with the old- even as parents watched helplessly while their children struggled through homework problems by themselves.  

     We are like this also as adults but more so. Our thinking becomes more set in certain ways of thinking or dealing with problems and difficulties. Often, we find that those ways no longer solve the issues we face in the real world. Tried and true is almost an anomaly, ironically, in today's fast hi-tech, (so-called) high touch and change-is-good philosophy and if you don't move right along with the current hit-and-run technology and strategies you can be left in the dust wondering how to handle challenges in the old way. Even I sometimes long for days when many aspects of life were a whole lot simpler or at least, not as complex.

     Change is not necessarily good but it is inevitable. A current popular quote supports this idea:

          "As a job seeker, remember this: You only lack experience if they want it done the same old way." - Robert Brault

     There is a certain type of wisdom in that which is refreshing and welcomed because long-term problems such as economics, ecology, energy and substance depletion, pollution and toxic waste continue to hamper modern life. Our stubbornness in continuing to do everything as if it is working- when it's obvious it is not- created many of these problems and they won't be resolved or at least tackled until we admit that changes are inevitable and imperative.

     In God's Kingdom, change is also inevitable, irreversible and eventually required. Repentance, in its direct form, is basically changing your independent mind and habits to being more dependent on God and what is laid out in the holy scriptures. The Bible is indeed our 'set of instructions' for everything from dealing with jealousy to breaking bad habits along with being freed from the slavery of sin. God is not out to change who you are- that wouldn't make sense since God created you. He wants you to change your stubborn attitudes, to make better choices in life and proclaim that His way really is the best way to do everything.

     Back in the 70s there was a song which was made very popular by the Carpenters titled, Love is Surrender. I'll let it play out here the way it was written by Ralph Carmichael:

The Castle Lady