The Power of Surrender

Sometimes you find yourself at a crossroads, or a turning point. You know the place? where you can either go one way, or the other, and in this place, you may need to seek counsel and advice. Other times, all you can do is fully surrender. This happens when you are faced with a circumstance so big, like a enormous boulder in your path that you cannot see literally any way around on the narrow path you may be walking. You have tried EVERY possible way around the boulder, or challenge, but nothing seems to be working. It is during moments such as these, when it seems all you can do is fully surrender to a situation, or challenge you may be faced with. There is power in surrender though, because the creator, or Great Spirit knows our every need and concern. And sometimes I believe, he is just waiting for us to quit trying so hard to fix everything, or to fix a situation we have very little control of anyways and just give it over to him. He waits, he glories in those opportunities to show himself, to reveal his power, and his unfailing love for us all. He yearns for us to call upon him for everything. It is just in these moments of surrender that he can really show forth his glory and power, usually because we are so humbled and so broken down and open.

A perfect example of this type of surrender was the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt in their exodus (or migration), when pharaoh decided to take revenge. In the moment when all the Israelites were surrounded by the Sea on one side and by the army of pharaoh on the other, coming to literally destroy them, all Moses could do as their leader was surrender, because in his limited perspective they were trapped. So that is exactly what he did was surrender to a higher power. And look what happened? God revealed marvelous power and delivered the people in a miraculous way.

I remember well a very trying time such as this in my own families lives. It was few years ago. I had lost the best paying job of my entire life just a few months before Christmas. My wife and I at the time and I were praying for a miracle, not knowing where to turn. We couldn't pay rent, and we had absolutely no money for Christmas. On top of that, we were several thousand dollars past due on all of our most basic bills. In that moment and situation, all we could do was surrender, as we were in way over our heads. So, that is what we did. We surrendered everything to God. You see The Power of Surrender is that it pulls you to your knees, to the ground, where you realize your own humility and limited power compared to the power of the universe and you humbly and sincerely ask for help and surrender your situation to a much greater entity.

Needless to say, our prayers were answered, but in a completely bizarre way. We were praying for a miracle for things to turn around. I guess the old saying is true, "be careful what you pray for," because just a few weeks later, our house caught on fire in the middle of the night, due to a wood burning stove. We lost pretty much everything. But, then an amazing thing started to happen. The community responded to our loss. Money, gifts, clothing, food, furniture and etc. began flooding in from everywhere in an avalanche of abundance. We lost our home, but in our surrender, God gave us a fresh new start with a ton of resources and we were able to totally start over with a clean slate financially.

That is The Power of Surrender. It is not weakness. It is not about giving up, but rather giving in to a power and force that is much greater and wiser than you and me. This lesson was a great lesson in surrender for me and my family. In surrender lies great strength and power because you are saying, God I can't fix this. All I can do is all I can do, the rest now God is up to you. I can't get out of this jam alone. And you are turning your problem/challenge over to God, or the Great spirit, or Allah to help you resolve it. You are reaching, or turning to him for help. And I am here to testify that in that moment of surrender comes some of life's greatest blessings and gifts!