Surrender

We are encouraged to strive hard to better ourselves through education, material acquisitions or by undergoing intellectual or ethical cleansing. We convince ourselves not only of our self-importance, social standing, but seek to occupy the moral high ground. This pursuit is based on the sanctity of Man and the need to be honoured by mankind to achieve some form of immortality; to be victorious. However, this dream is marred, as the endeavours leave us permanently scarred by our faults and subsequent failure to treat others with kindness and consideration, presumably because we are too busy or simply not interested enough to care. It is as if the goal is ‘right’ that of becoming ‘perfect’ but the methodology we employ is constantly counterproductive. To ‘right’ oneself is like ‘pulling yourself up by your shoelaces’. As much as this is our main objective, we cannot be involved as our own ego is the problem; so, who can bring about the necessary changes – only God. To save ourselves we need to surrender wholeheartedly to Him and allow Him to fashion us into something that is beyond our imagination or recognition.

This ‘letting go’ of our persona, is accompanied by relinquishing the need to impress our fellow man. Once we realise that everything that man tries to achieve is fruitless and filled with paradoxes and contradictions, the puzzle is solved. We sense our moral decay and the erosion of our precious codes of ethics and values. This is needed because these ‘standards’ become the barriers that prevent us from forgiving our neighbours; our personal ‘laws’ will by definition cause others to trespass and offend us. The question is what to hold onto in our daily lives: by trusting that God will love us and that we in turn love our friends and enemies. This is easier said than done, as we regularly look down on others who we deem ‘morally or intellectually inferior’; we, ourselves are very much, ‘a work in progress’ and so should also view others in this light as God seeks to transform anyone in whom his Spirit resides.