Surrender

A few weeks ago we got together with my siblings for dinner and my brother shared with us his takeaways from the sermon at church from that Sunday morning, where the pastor talked about surrendering.

So I of course in true Malia fashion asked him what he and his wife needed to surrender. They shared their individual things, and then my brother turned the question back to me, and I think I laughed a little, and stated, I feel like we've surrendered so much. I don't know what else we have left to surrender.

And little did I know that Peter was going to be let go from his job that he'd waited 18 months for just a week after this conversation.

But the truth is, we do have more to surrender.

And We always will.

We have ourselves, our bodies, our souls, our minds, our hands and our hearts.

It's not always about surrendering our jobs, our babies, our finances, our partners.

It's ultimately about surrendering ourselves, our stories, our past, our present, our future.

And when it comes down to it, all I am is Yours Lord.

All my stories, my joy, my struggles, they are all His.

He is writing the most beautiful story, and I can either try to control it or I can fully surrender to it.

And I am here to say, so much freedom can be found in full surrender.

All I am is Yours Lord.

I give You all my life. I'm letting it go.
A living sacrifice, no longer my own.
All I am is Yours, all I am is Yours.

I give You everything. To You I belong.
Every beat of my heart. The breath in my lungs.
All I am is Yours, all I am is Yours.

And as I sing this, I can't help but think about this past year and how hard it has been. Yet in that same breath, I think how blessed are we to lose so much and know that when those things are taken from us, He is enough and we are content in Him.

If we've learned anything this past year it's that we need the Lord and when we surrender everything to Him, when we lay everything down, He shows up, and it is so good. And there is so much freedom in that surrender.

Jennie Allen writes in Nothing to Prove, "He is real and the stories that He writes are good. Yes, they have dark chapters, but all good stories need dark chapters so that the light can shine through."

And may we let that light shine through. May we never forget that nothing is in vain, and may we allow the Lord to use our hardship, our trials, our pain to show the world who He really is - to show the world the peace, the trust, the faithfulness, the freedom that comes from knowing and surrendering to Him.

May we allow the pain to strengthen us, not weaken us.

What do you need to surrender? What are you holding tightly to? What are you trying to control?