Postkiwi Duncan Macleod

“Give yourselves to God… Surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes.”
Romans 6:13

Rick Warren writes in Day 10 of the Purpose Driven Life, that the heart of worship is surrender.

Paul urges us to fully surrender our lives to God in worship:

“So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us… offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.”

Note: It’s good to see the writer of this verse acknowledged. For a lot of the book so far, we’ve been told that “The Bible tells us…”

Rick names two things that prevent us from surrendering our lives to God:

Fear: Can I trust God?
Pride: Can I admit my limitations?

Can I trust God?

I’m occasionally surprised when people turn down an opportunity to meet with me in my consultancy work. Usually there’s an agenda of hurt from the past. They believe I’ll berate them or make them feel stupid. I guess I could if I wanted to. But my purpose in consultancy is to listen very carefully and fairly so that the organisation can build a good atmosphere for moving ahead together.

I think sometimes we find it hard to trust God because we’ve been hurt, let down, disappointed, or frustrated. If God cares about every detail of my life, why does he let me suffer? Why do unfair things happen? Those were the questions Job would have asked in his time of suffering. These questions have certainly crossed my mind a few times.

It boils down to what we’re trusting God for. A bedridden woman asked me if she could trust God to protect her from intruders. I was stuck with that one. In all honesty, I knew she was vulnerable to harm like anyone. God doesn’t give us immunity to harm just because we’re children of the King. So what do we trust God for? Is just for an assurance of love, acceptance and concern? Or is there something deeper - a purpose drawn out of our experience.

Rick reminds us that surrender is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness. He actually uses the phrase “God does not want robots to serve him” - a phrase that came to mind when dealing with his concept of instant obedience in Day 9.

I like the way surrender to God is linked with relationships and money. We don’t always have to be in charge. We don’t edge others out, demand our rights and self-serve when we’re surrendered. Retirement in comfort is not the goal of a surrendered life. These are healthy challenges to the me-centred values of our time.

So how does this relate to the surrender of Jesus to the cross? Rick refers to Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.

“Father, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.”
Mark 14:36 (New Living Translation)

Rick takes this a step further by telling us that genuine surrender says:
“Father, if this problem, pain, sickness, or circumstance is needed to fulfill your purpose and glory in my life or in another’s, please don’t take it away.”

I think we have permission to ask if God has any other way of achieving his purposes. After all Jesus asked. And I think generally, God does have a huge range of options. It’s just that Jesus was the one who had to carry the load of the cross. No one else. I’m glad I don’t have to step into Jesus’ role. I am not the Messiah. (Something I remind myself when tempted to unthinkingly take on the expectations of others.)

Surrender for me is more often than not about letting go of responsibility rather than accumulating it. I’m happy to have a go at the inconvenient, unpopular, costly or seemingly impossible tasks. And I’m happy to do these in the spirit of worship to God.