Reframing Surrender: An Invitation and Promise for Building Your Future
What image does surrender conjure up in your mind? Do you see a silly cartoon character waving a tattered white flag? Maybe you picture a child exhausted from the laughter of an epic tickle fight. Perhaps surrender creates a somber image of a battle-weary soldier at the end of a war.
What if surrendering isn’t about white flags or defeat? What if surrender is really about releasing our grip on what we can’t control? What if surrender and reaching for help is part of the path to a joyful future despite difficult circumstances?
My story has led me on a journey reframing the meaning of surrender. In 2004, a mass radiation accident during a teacher in-service training changed my life. The radiation burns left me homebound and in unrelenting 24-hour pain. Those burns have also meant I have had to surrender my career, my ability to drive, most of my life outside of my home, many friends, and even my marriage of nearly 30 years. It hasn’t been easy.
On my darkest days of pain, I felt like I was dangling by my fingertips from a precipice over a roaring ocean. The edge of the cliff was crumbling between my fingers and falling into a tear-filled sea below. Like a stormy sea ravaging the shoreline, each wave of loss attempted to undercut the foundation of my life. Maybe you have felt this way too.
When I cried out for help, a mighty Rescuer was there. With the last ounce of courage I could muster, I surrendered my grip on the disintegrating pieces of my life and placed my hand in His. It felt strong and secure.
Back on solid ground, there were no instant answers to what the future held. I just knew Who held my future. The Lord asked me to believe His promise:
“I will never (under any circumstances) desert you
(nor give you up nor leave you without support,
nor will I in any degree leave you helpless),
nor will I forsake or let you down
or relax My hold on you (assuredly not)!”
Hebrews 13:5b AMP
I didn’t have a choice in much of what I lost, but I had a choice in who I would trust. I had a choice to surrender to hope and a future, or to bitterness and anger. I chose to put my entire trust in the Lord. His promise to never leave me became the foundation for my future. No matter how many others left, the Lord never has and never will. “Assuredly not!”
My surrender list is long, but my list of joys is even longer, filling volumes of journals and countless prayers of gratitude. The joy in my life is only explainable by continued surrender. As I keep surrendering to the Lord, reaching for His strength, and believing in his promises, He opens doors I could have never imagined.
Surrender is not a white flag of defeat. Surrender is releasing our grip on what we can’t control. Surrender is reaching for help and a path to a joyful future, despite circumstances. Surrender is an invitation to build your house and future on the Rock that can’t be shaken.
The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house;
yet it did not fall,
because it had its foundation on the rock.
Matthew 7:25
The heart of 2 Samuel 22:17 paints a picture of the Lord reaching down from heaven for us. I pray you take His hand as He reaches out to you at this every moment. Let Him pull you to solid ground. You can trust His promise. He will never leave you. “Assuredly not!”
Reframing Surrender first appeared as a guest blog post in a series on surrender hosted by author Lori Sanders.
Original artwork from Lori Jean Whitaker accompanied the post.