Feel like the end of the world is nigh? Sometimes the best thing you can do is surrender and be your most beautiful, broken self.
When life gets us down, we are told over and over that we must not quit. ‘Whatever you do, champ, you’ve got to get back up… you’ve got to keep going’, is a rallying cry commonly heard. In the past it might have been heard in the moments after suffering a particularly brutal tackle playing for your school team; later in life its intentions take a more metaphorical path – the middle-aged divorcee whose just been told they’re being made redundant, or any number of other real-life scenarios that hurt so much more than sport!
The one thing we are never told to do, is surrender. It’s advice that no one wants to give and no one wants to be given, but what if there are times when, in the light of faith, it is the right course of action?
Have you ever had a time when you feel particularly bruised and beaten? As if you’ve been running up a downwards escalator that goes nowhere, for years, and you’re emotionally emptied out to the point where you not only are incapable of joy, you’re incapable of feeling anything.
Sometimes these situations arise after years of slogging and trying to make something work that simply isn’t going to. Whether it’s a job, a relationship or even a personal fitness project, the day-today grind of it feels thankless – like you’re banging your head against a wall. For some of us it might be a bolt of out the blue like a death in the family or a partner’s affair, or it could just be an ongoing relentless malaise.
The latter is particularly true in this complicated modern world we live in. Daily reminders from the media of the impending environmental crisis, global elections that go in the direction we don’t want them to, various wars that threatens to turn nuclear, rising prices at the grocery store, or just the perpetual fakery of material life – the haves and the have-nots. In many different ways, it can often add up to feelings of utter dread and hopelessness.
The problem is that all the time we are worrying about these issues and trying to fix things in our lives and ourselves, we are taking the focus away from God. We are looking to ourselves, those around us, and even, most absurdly, to world leaders, to solve the problems, to fix life and to fix the unease inside of us.
Perhaps it’s just the uncertainty of knowing what comes next. The political and social scrutiny, and its rapid rate of change – Australia, the US and the UK have all seen new faces come to the helm in the past couple of years, means that whether or not you like their policies, their approach and their perspective, what they represent to many is yet another structural reset… is uncertainty, and instability.
It comes down to this – as Christians we can pray for others and ask that they be guided to be honest, faithful and true, but we can control them as much as we can control the turning of the tides, and that’s why we must surrender. By surrendering, we let go of personal control, trusting that God knows what is best, even when it’s difficult to understand. Proverbs 3:5-6 encourages us to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
While the celebrity world is often a bad place from which to take any meaningful extraction, it’s certainl true that a number of vocal believers have professed to uncovering real salvation through the somewhat perverse process of stopping looking for it.
Surrender is a daily practice, not just something we turn to in desperation, and it is best done through prayer. We express our fears and worries and desires when we pray, but the most important act is to ask for the Lord’s guidance in all matters. This is best displayed by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prays: ‘not my will, but yours be done’ (Luke 22:42).
The truth is, when we try to steer our own ship and close our hearts and eyes off from God, we are trying to be something we are not. We are not Captains but children who make mistakes, and the best part is that God loves us more when we own up to our brokenness and flaws.
When we turn to him in despair and admit that we are not perfect, He reminds us of the unconditional love that exists.
One of the best examples of this is in 2 Corinthians 12:9 when Paul says, “he said to me, ‘my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
In other words, when we are weak and vulnerable and open our hearts to God, he loves us more and He lifts us up. If we do not surrender, if we struggle to be humble and accept that we can’t fix everything ourselves, then we are shutting ourselves off from true peace.
None of this means we should stop caring about things – in fact, when we cease our fretting and handwringing, we become better, more present and more aware. We show up for those we love and engage meaningfully. We can invest in acts of kindness for others and pursue small things that make the world better.
So the next time you feel worthless because you can’t fit into your new jeans, or you’re in fits of envy over your ex’s new partner, or you’re canning vegetables in anticipation of Armageddon, put your phone down, take a deep breathe and surrender your heart to the only one who can truly heal it.
Simone Lee
