One of the hardest things to do for a Christian in America is to continually live a life of surrender to the Lord. No matter how much we are indoctrinated with the idea that "surrender" is the right thing to do, or the "Christian" thing to do, it is a hard task that requires the deepest yielding of ones own will. It goes against everything we feel we are required to do in life to succeed and survive... more so to thrive and attain the goal of the American Dream. Even at a young age, we are taught to be better than our fellow little leaguers, our fellow classmates.. to be stronger, faster, smarter, and more successful. By nature, mankind is a society that desires to construct their own tower of babel, to see just how high our respective pinnacles can be. While it is the reason for great human feats and accomplishments, it is also the evidence that mankind as a whole is driven by our pride and desire for attainment. That is how we are wired, ironically in the image of God, to seek the greater... a deep subconcious realization that there is "more" out there... What we can attain in this life is just not enough.
While we can tout the accomplishments of mankind and marvel at its great progression throughout history, I believe it also serves to give clues as to why at an individual level, we have such a hard time surrendering to a Great and worthy God. It is a constant battle of our sin nature, our natural inclination, encouraged by the structres of society and the pyramids it has built. Surrender itself has such a negative connotation. Surrender feels as if we are giving up... sacrificing what we've worked for. However, this also clues us to what it is that we have set as our goal and desire in this life. When a basketball team forfeit's and surrenders a game, it is giving up what they've worked towards achieving... victory. The yielding of the ultimate and sacred goal. In life, we feel as though surrender is the sacrifice of everything that we've worked hard for... because in that state, we are acknowledging in a way, the loss of control of all things... tangible things. In our minds, it is hard not to feel as if there is so much to lose.
The paradox of it all is that surrender to our creator begins the process of restoring us back to our initial relationship with Him... our natural state. When we declare that we truly need God, that despite our percieved competence, our percieved riches, that we need God to truly fulfill our purposes and ultimately discover the deep joy that our souls desire... we find rest in him. There are very few crises in life. We become like David and declare that earth has nothing we desire but Him... a true declaration of surrender, love and worship. Despite the troubles of David a joy fills his heart like an elixir that life cannot offer.
In a word of brokenness and sin, hardships will befall our lives and that brokenness will serve as a necessary bridge toward true surrender to God. Even still, God will never force surrender like it is often the case in life... He will wait patiently to allow us to use our free will to decide which is truly greater. If life is about choices and decisions, I believe the decision of surrender will be one of the most important that we can ever make.
