So have you caught on that surrender is a theme for me this year?
Last week I spent time thinking about it in relation to the writing life as I prepared to speak at an ACFW chapter meeting. Next week I’m speaking to a MOPS group, and the same theme echoes in my heart as I pray over what I’ll say to those moms.
As I was researching, I realized there are basically two roads of surrender. The first involves voluntarily bowing our knee, our will, our plans, to the leading of another. The second involves the forced surrender of our lives, will, and plans. For the first, think of that moment when you surrendered your heart to Christ. God didn’t force you to take that step, even though He may have prompted and lead. You got to choose. For the second, think of Lee and his army surrendering to Grant and the Union. Or consider what will happen when time ends and we all stand before God’s throne. The Bible promises that every knee will bow at that moment. Some because we willingly bow to the King we have lived our lives for. Others because their knees will be forced into submission.
Those pictures have stuck with me and humbled me the last couple weeks. There is such a contrast in those images. I pray I live me life in the first definition, yet I know there are times I don’t. I try to foist control from God, and it rarely results in lasting pleasure and satisfaction.
Comments 1
This is a great topic. Last year, I felt God calling me to surrender my writing to Him – as in totally give it up! I cried and pouted, and then, I gave it to Him. Recently, I got “The Call” from a publisher on a manuscript I was trying to sell before my break in writing, and I feel God leading me to write again. He taught me so much last year while I wasn’t writing fiction, and today, I have a new passion and perspective on my writing career. Thanks for a great post.