Typically, surrender unfolds within a dynamic tension between suffering and grace. We will not loosen our grip on the object of our surrender until the pain it causes us becomes unbearable. Yet, pain in and of itself is not enough. We will only let go of our puny gods (attachments) when we have something bigger and better to deliver ourselves over to. For example, years ago I would often assist families in their desire to do an intervention on a family member addicted to alcohol. Two things had to happen in order for an intervention to be successful: family members had to be loving but brutally honest about the alcoholic’s destructive behavior, and the alcoholic person had to be given hope (grace) for a better and brighter future without alcohol. This grace would come in the form of treatment, AA, the love of family members, and the hope-filled witness of a recovering alcoholic. The essential point is this: the more we experience God‘s love and goodness, the more willing we are to surrender our lives over to the care of God because our souls are naturally oriented to the highest and most blissful good.
Even though I suffer
When I am caught
Between suffering and grace,
You are with me
And waiting to show me
What freedom will look like.
