In the Surrender

During a Wednesday evening class a while back, someone shared about how his daughter had been in a car crash and spent time in a coma. Of course, the worry and anxiety were all-consuming. I can only imagine. He said they were not sleeping and at the hospital all the time; just praying and praying. One night driving home completely exhausted, he just said, : God it’s yours. It’s in your hands… I can’t do this anymore.” And in that prayer, in that surrender, there was peace…

Many of us have had those moments in life when we’ve had nowhere else to turn, those moments when we’ve realized the limits of our control, whether it was worry about a loved one, or finances, or a job, or a child; or our health. Most of us have experienced those moments when we’ve had to say, “OK God, this is in your hands. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this, but I have to trust that you are with me… I have trust that you will make a way… 

I remember a number of years ago now when my friend Charlie Landreth talked about his grandmother Celia. He said he could remember sitting on her lap in her rocking chair – her arms would be extended around him. She would read to him sometimes from the Bible – sometimes from a book. “Trust the Lord with all your heart”, she would say.

Charley said, “It’s been almost a whole lifetime since that early instruction and I am still learning to trust the Lord. You see, I’m a slow learner.  

Aren’t we all, Charlie? Aren’t we all? 

For thousands of years, people of faith have handed on their witness: There is a greater power at work. There is One whom we can trust in life and in death. There is a path. There is one who is at work even now to heal and redeem and to make all things new.

Let us pray: Help us, O God, to trust you. Even now, we surrender to you those burdens and concerns that weigh heavy on our hearts. Grant us your peace, we pray. Amen.