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By iucc on February 7, 2010 12:06 AM :: 341 Views

Luke 5:5-6

Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

As life goes on, some words seem to change their meanings, or acquire more or different meanings than they once had. For me, it’s been like that with the word “surrender.”

“Surrender” was always something to not do. “Stay in the game, don’t give up, never surrender.” Like that. There’s certainly a place for that. A place for persistence. A time for tenacity. I sometimes observe that leaders working for change in the life of a church give up too soon. You have to be persistent.

But “surrender” has acquired another meaning that is not negative, but positive. Like Peter in the Scripture story of fishing all night long but catching nothing, I had been working very hard for what seemed a long time and didn’t have a blessed thing (that I could see) to show for it. I was frustrated, angry and depressed. Very slowly, I realized there was another meaning to surrender and that I needed not to give up on the work, but to trust God more, to surrender it to God, and to let God be God for me. Instead of insisting on the outcomes I had in mind or the schedule I kept in my head, surrender to God, as ridiculous as it sounded, was the only sane path.

A friend likes to say, “When you’re at the end of your rope, there’s a reason you’re there, let go.” That doesn’t mean giving up. It means remembering who’s on first, and that it’s not you (or me).

Prayer

Lord, grant me the courage not to give up in the important battles, and the grace to surrender to you. Amen.
 
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Bible texts are from the New Revised Standard Version, © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Daily Readings are © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. Used by permission.

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