Commitment vs. Surrender

One of the most difficult realizations of my life in the past several months has been the concept of committing verses surrendering in regards to God and His purposes. I don’t think most people see the two as widely different, but I have learned that the implications are miles apart. I heard a wonderful talk by Randy Garriss who quoted a foreign friend of his who essentially said, “you Americans need to know you are the only ones who use the word ‘commit’ when it comes to Christ. everyone else uses the word surrender.” And Randy went on to explain how our individualist culture, even in the church, leads us to belief in Christ = our commitment to Christ, which is totally backwards. It’s easy to understand why this would be so popular. If I commit myself to Christ, I have rights. I am in the driver’s seat with our relationship—and more importantly I think there is a limit to how much God can ask of me. But if you truly surrender and lay everything at the feet of Christ, there is no limit to what he can do or ask of you—and that is scary. This delineation of terms right now might be the most important distinction I need to make in my life. I don’t think that I need more knowledge, and I don’t really think that I really need to apply that knowledge that I have attained better or more holy, I think I need to see everything, my whole life, all of my stuff, my family, my friends, my talents, my skills as not mine. That is when I will truly be trusting in God and His purposes. I have had this trust problem for sometime now and I didn’t understand why I didn’t feel like I really trusted Christ, and now I think that it’s clear that I have lots of areas that I’m not surrendered in, and when that changes, I think that vision, peace, joy and trust will not be far behind.