In my previous post, I wrote about last Sunday’s Talk about love, happiness, and peace not being the result of external conditions. Two of the ways that we get past the “if onlies” is by surrounding ourselves with people and situations that affirm ourselves as children of God and by surrendering to God’s guidance towards our perfect life of joy, peace, and love.
Later on, when I stared writing my reflections on that, my pen took a life of its own. It started emitting all these understandings about surrendering that I didn’t know I knew. Here’s what I now know:
When I surrender, when I invest in being authentically me as an “on purpose” creation of God, abundance and ease are reflected back. God continues to create blessings and paths in ways I didn’t know existed. I shouldn’t be afraid or apprehensive that this new chapter in my life will bring, but instead I have to remember that God brought these recent opportunities to me to begin with so I can’t fear blessings. I am encouraged and reassured about this transition in my life because I know that it is ordained (from Latin, “to put in order.”)
When we surrender in attempts to receive blessings or when we try to act “good” to get rewarded, we are missing the point. Surrendering to receive compensation or merit is still holding on to the idea that salvation, happiness, peace and joy are external from us in the form of some other thing or person. It’s also affirming the belief that salvation happiness, peace, and joy are prizes only given to the “good.” Instead, in order to surrender we must believe that we are already good and valuable and put purposely on our path.
Surrendering isn’t the same as giving up or being out of options. It is not defeat. It is, instead, letting go of the idea that we serve an external God and that we need external rewards. It’s relinquishing the need to exert false control to get external things. Surrendering is basking in the light and not resisting. It’s what you do when you float—you allow yourself to be carried, knowing that you will be safe on the journey and that you’ll arrive precisely where you are supposed to be.
I surrender.
Up Next: What is standing in our way of surrendering? (I bet you already have the answer.)