Surrender

2 CommentsWednesday • December 5, 2012 • by Sixty Feet

 

“In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne until he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross he remains on the throne.”  A.W. Tozer

Not that long ago, I had the joy of having my car broken into and my briefcase stolen.  When I say “joy” I truly mean that.  A  security guard showed up in my office late one afternoon, and I knew immediately what had happened. It was unfortunate because I was supposed to be at a dinner with some men that night which I was really looking forward to.  But God had other plans.

Instead of my usual irritated response, I chose to trust what God was doing and roll with it.  There was no telling who I would meet or what opportunity God was giving me so I didn’t want to waste it.  As I walked down to the car and saw the shattered window, I had absolutely zero expectations of what might happen.  The moment was His, the car was His, and the briefcase (wherever it was) was His.  In one glorious instance, I was fully surrendered.  Not a care in the world, and it was totally liberating.

I wish I could say all my days are like that (except for the grand larceny part).  That I’m fully yielded to God.  But instead of an empty vessel, I typically feel more like a cargo ship with all my junk on board.  Christians often talk about “being surrendered” but if we’re honest we haven’t really turned over (and maybe we really don’t want to) things like our schedules, our pocketbooks, our possessions, or even our dreams.  We sit on our thrones clinging to most of that stuff with a death grip that inevitably ends up killing us.

A.W. Tozer talked about the glaring contradiction between the theology and lives of professing Christians.  We worship Christ and are drawn to tears over the cross, yet we recede into the background when it’s time to put our faith into practice.  We want the salvation Christ offers as long as He does all the dying.

But Christ bids us come and die too.  He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and trust Him.  When we fail to do that, we are the ones robbed of true joy and the liberation that comes with complete surrender.

Our dear friend Dan leaves his job this month to work full-time with SixtyFeet.  God had a different plan for him and Dan was willing to accept a call that precious few would.  He is surrendered.  The road may be hard, but I know from my recent experience that a surrendered life is a joyous life.  I pray more of us come to know experientially how liberating it is to truly turn everything over to Him and start following His lead.

Just as an aside, I got the briefcase back.

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