✰✰✰✰ Surrender ✰✰✰✰

Job 11:13-15

Surrender your heart to God,

   turn to him in prayer,

and give up your sins—

   even those you do in secret.

Then you won’t be ashamed;

you will be confident

   and fearless.

Surrender? Surrender What?

Surrender does not come easy for me. When I am in the height of a retreat I find it easier to let go and let God than in day to day life. Time passes and I get so caught up in my bubble I forget that God can handle anything. I forget that I can and should surrender. My stress, worries, anger, disappointments, joys, fears, achievements, moments, conversations, thoughts, actions, and well everything I should surrender it to God. Surrender everything?

My Encounter with Surrender:

I just recently had to surrender my dog to the Humane Society. We love Charlie. We’d bathe him, feed him, walk him, play with him, give him snacks. Charlie is a cocker spaniel/ hound mix. He has chronic ear infections causing partial hearing loss, auto-immune disease, and terrible allergies. My family still loved Charlie, but when we realized we could no longer afford his treatment he was suffering. Worse, we took Charlie to the groomers but they gave him back with a half shaved side because his skin was too bad. We bought our own supplies and gave Charlie a new do. The day came to take Charlie to the Humane Society, so we load up the truck with our home shaved pupper and headed off. Letting go was harder than I thought.

We sit in the few chairs of the Humane Society office to fill out surrender paperwork with cats sneaking about and the vulture eyed employees. I was sad. I began to doubt if this was the right option. I thought, “maybe we can take him home and just try harder. We need to show him more love, more time, more care, more.” Surrendering felt like giving up. Like I wasn't enough. When we finally returned to the car, Charlie having already been taken off by an employee, I wept. When I got home I wept too. I was disappointed to have to surrender our dog because I wasn't enough for him. I knew the Humane Society could afford to treat him and he will find a home that can support him, but I was still sad. I realized that I was still sad because I knew the pain he was already in and hurt he would feel. The employees didn’t seem amused at the heartbreak of my own family either.

Surrendering is not pretty, but this is what God tells us to do. Surrender everything to God. Surrender the pain, the joys, the trials, the fears, the looks, the words, everything. We loved Charlie and gave him a home when he didn’t have one, but the time came and he needs to be cared for in a way that my family can’t. God looks at us with this love. When we surrendered Charlie over to the Humane Society so Charlie can be cared for by the professionals and placed in a more supportive home. Christ asks you and I to surrender ourselves over to Him who is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving to be forgiven and one day make it to an eternal home. When I surrendered Charlie I was confident in his future; when I surrender to Christ I gain confidence in God’s future for me.