It was a hot August day, the perfect day for a spontaneous road trip. My friend and I threw our bags in my SUV and headed East with nothing but miles of road and limited time. We found ourselves overlooking Niagara Falls watching thousands of pounds of water hit the bottom every second. "Let go, like the water falling over the edge." I heard the Lord whisper. We drove through the country side of Vermont wheeling through mountain curves and dropping down dirt roads without a plan of where we were going. "Let go, like the curves give way to the landscape of the mountains." He whispered. We found ourselves on the sandy coast overlooking the ocean as wave after wave crashed against the rocks. "Let go, like the waves within the ocean" He whispered once more.
Maybe your like me and need to drive 30 hours in 3 days to renew your perspective or maybe your normal! Either way the conversation of surrender is a topic that should never grow quiet. As we find ourselves in seasons we love or seasons we can not wait to end, the common denominator is surrendering to the ebb and flow of the season. Throughout my life I have had moments where I have been great at surrendering what I want and how I think God should guide my life; but a lifestyle of surrender, I have yet to achieve. Life is really good at throwing many twists and turns into our delicately thought out plans AND rather brutally I might add. A scripture that always grounds me when I feel like my life is spinning out of control or I find myself back at the drawing board is Proverbs 23:26 - "My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways." Herein lies the problem, when our heart desire does not align with the heart of the Father, and we desire our ways more than His.
I often forget that faith is not built on answered prayers alone; but trusting He is enough when our prayers are not answered, or answered entirely differently than we thought. Isn't that the beauty of surrender though? Letting go of what we thought would happen so we can enter into the beauty of the unknown. A place where our Heavenly Father can display His beauty and prove He knows our heart so much better than we know it. When we understand that first part, we can then focus on the second part of the scripture "...let your eyes observe my ways." How often are we caught up watching the world on display, caught in comparison and willing more from our lives, when all we have been asked is to keep our eyes on His ways.
What if the key to a lifestyle of Surrender is actually a lifestyle of constantly dying to ourselves, our wants and instead aligning our sights with His. What if we delighted in communion with Him, paused and reflected as we took in the time spent with Him. What if we asked what He has for us that day or how He wants us to handle each situation as it comes our way. He's not afraid of the mess we make and takes great delight in helping us clean it up. In fact I believe a lifestyle of surrender is messy, its emotional, its raw and real, and He meets us there. We don't just serve a God who will give us the answer to our prayers, but He is also a God who will hold us in our mess when there is no answer. That is a God not only worth surrendering to but a God we can put our faith in and daily commune with. This my friends, is not only surrender but it's true rest in him.