Submitted by Pastor David Wynn, Tarkio Christian Church

Giving up is something that doesn’t come easy for us. Our whole lives we have tried hard not to be the type of person that just throws in the towel when the going gets rough. We like to be in the lead. We like to be in control. We like to be the one calling the shots. Truth be told, when we give up, our feelings are hurt.

But sometimes we know that we are going to have to trust someone else’s judgement. Someone else is going to have to take the lead. We won’t be in control, and we won’t be the one calling the shots. There is an element of surrender in allowing someone else to lead. 

Did I mention that we hate giving up? It’s kind of like dancing. One follows, the other leads. But in order to “dance” successfully with your partner, you can’t always be the one leading.

Being in a loving relationship with Jesus is a lot like dancing. Someone is going to have to take the lead, and there’s only one right someone to lead this relationship. But getting to the place where we allow Jesus to take our hand and lead us into an unknown, exciting, life-giving dance is often scary. Oh, we like the idea of Jesus taking complete control of our lives, and we like the idea of him guiding our decisions and choices, but in reality we still refuse to throw in the towel, and let him take the lead, don’t we? 

Instead of falling into his loving embrace as he leads us into a beautiful dance where we celebrate our mutual love, we say, “Follow me Jesus.” But because we are who we are, stubborn children of God, it takes time. We have to learn to trust God’s heart. You won’t surrender to God unless you trust him, but you can’t trust him until you know him better. 

As we nurture our relationship with Jesus, the more we begin to realize just how much he loves us, and the easier surrender becomes. Not because surrender is an easy process, but because our trust opens us to God’s will for our lives. God tells us how crazy in love with us he is all throughout scripture. He wants our heart, but he can’t have it until we willingly lay it down at his feet. And we will only surrender our hearts to Jesus when we trust and accept the truth about his love for us.

God placed the freedom of choice into our minds and hearts when he made us. Surrender does not mean that we repress our own, unique personality.

C.S. Lewis said, “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because he made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when we turn to Christ, when we give up ourselves to His personality, that we first begin to have a real personality of our own.” 

Let’s face it, we all like having things go our way, but if we want to dance with Jesus we have to be willing to say, “Not my way God, but your way.” God really does know what’s best for our lives and we need to rely on God to work things. You don’t always have to be “in charge.” Instead of trying harder, you trust more. And then, you dance. 

Sometimes . . . in fact, most often . . . we will only decide to dance with Jesus when we come to a place of desperation. Driven our entire lives by the desire to be in control, we finally break, and decide that our only option is to give up, give in, and follow God’s lead. We dance.

Wow! If only we all could do that, what a wonderful world this would be.