by Nils Von Kalm

 ¢â‚¬Å“Surrender ¢â‚¬  is not a popular concept in our culture. It speaks of submission, of giving up and of letting someone else control our lives. Yet when we are surrendered to Christ, we find that we are given the life we have always been searching for.

The way of Christ is counter-cultural and full of paradoxes. We die to live, we give away in order to receive, and we surrender to win. To live like this in our seductive, feel-good culture, requires a trust in Christ that is not easily attained.

Trust is of course scary. When I was a teenager we would sometimes play a game in which one person would stand in the middle with a group of others circling him. The person in the middle was then asked to close their eyes and fall backwards while keeping their legs straight. His friends in the circle would then catch him. Unsurprisingly, it was called the  ¢â‚¬Å“trust game ¢â‚¬  because it forced you to put your unconditional trust in your friends in the circle around you as you fell backwards (hopefully into their arms!).

The life of surrender and trust is what has helped millions of people suffering from addiction the world over to gain their lives back. The 12 Step movement has its roots in what was known as the Oxford Group, an evangelical Christian group, in the 1930s. The first three Steps are as follows:

• That you admit you are powerless and your life has become unmanageable;
• Coming to believe that only a power greater than yourself can restore you to right living;
• Making a decision to turn your will and life over to the care of God as you understand God.

The foundation for the recovery of the addict has been the surrender of their lives to God. Surrender is not a one-time event for these people. It is an attitude, a way of life.

Gerald May, author of Addiction and Grace, says we are all addicts in some form or another. Most of us don ¢â‚¬â„¢t have the obvious forms of addiction such as alcoholism, substance abuse or destructive sexual behaviour, but we all have our own ways in which we attempt to find life apart from God. As Christian author Larry Crabbputs it, we all try to dig our own wells to find the water of life we are really looking for.

Jesus of course faced the same challenges. So, what greater example could we look to in order to see how the life of surrender is lived out?

In the Garden of Gethsemane, when he sweated drops of blood such was his stress, and when his best friends had deserted him, Jesus prayed that this and his coming suffering would pass from him. But he also prayed,  ¢â‚¬Å“Not my will, but yours be done ¢â‚¬ (NRSV, Matt 26:39).

Then, as he hung on the cross in unbearable pain, publicly humiliated for all to see, he cried out,  ¢â‚¬Å“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?! ¢â‚¬  (NRSV, Matt 27:46) But he also said  ¢â‚¬Å“Into your hands I place my spirit ¢â‚¬  (NRSV, Luke 23:46).

The life of surrender is the life that is truly life. It is the life we all seek in the core of our beings. As St Augustine and others have said over the centuries, we are restless until we find our home in God. Contrary to what our culture tells us, the life of surrender to God is the one that brings real joy. It is joy that lasts despite our circumstances. Lord I surrender all of my life to you today.