SURRENDER

SURRENDER

Surrender. When you are fighting a losing battle, it may be time to give it up to someone who has the power to turn the tide.

There is nothing like the trials of others to make you realize how powerless you are.

As a teacher and a woman in ministry, I am often present for some hard stories. The hardest part is the stories are true, and someone I know is living in them.

I am a feeler and a fixer. I often keep the feeling internal and demonstrate my concern by trying to fix. I am getting slightly wiser with age, and I’m learning to try to keep the fixing to myself and share the feeling.

I’ve learned a lot, and there is a great deal for me to learn still.

1. People have problems I cannot even begin to solve for them

This is a hard truth. I want desperately to do something to make everything better. I want to provide finances, give marriage saving counsel, restore broken bodies and broken hearts, and I want to make good decisions for those who can’t manage to choose the right thing. This is partially because I am a control freak, but mostly because I care deeply.

The thing is I can honestly do little to nothing about most, if not all, the situations I am presented with. I am powerless. I cannot fix these situations. I can love, I can support, and I can give the only counsel I know to be effective and true….

2. God is the answer people need.

I can’t solve people’s problems, but I can point them to the one who can change everything. This is where the why and the how go beyond my understanding…. so I will skip straight to number 3. (I am grateful my God is bigger than what a human mind can easily comprehend. Who wants to serve a simple God?)

3. God is a God of power and a God of process.

I stole that line from my husband… I’m not sure who he got it from or if it is original to him. Still, it is true. God can, in his power, change the circumstances for someone in an instant. Sometimes he does, but sometimes he doesn’t. He also gives people what they need to work through a process before they reach the other side.

I don’t pretend to know how or why God works the way he does. All I know is he works. He shows up, and he changes things. It might be the circumstance, or it might be the person. Either way, things change for the better. God is the only answer for the hopeless situations.

I cannot control and fix the painful situations of those near me. I can:

1. Be present- listen, love, and support.
2. Pray for the situation.

I am not enough on my own to meet the needs I hear and see, so I throw my hands up in surrender to the only one who can intervene. I surrender.