Surrender and Trust

  • Spiritual principles are paradoxical. This means they are a seemingly contradictory statements that nonetheless are true.

So, it is at this point that we have to surrender our ego in defeat. Now, for this outer self (ego) to admit defeat is not negative. Paradoxically it’s one of the most positive and spiritual events that can occur in life. There is no peace nor is there any permanent understanding until this happens as the inner experience of an individual. The surrender, to our inner self (I AM), must occur before a person can enter into their God consciousness or the kingdom of God consciousness or have an awakening to their inner spiritual identity.

Leo Tolstoy (September 9 1828 – November 20, 1910) who is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time, said:

  • Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

This was echoed by Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) American visual artist, film director and producer, said:

  • They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Spiritual law requires that if we would receive, we must first give. That for everything received, something must first be exchanged. We cannot experience anything in the universe except that we first fulfill the conditions of that experience.

And as always, we have to make the first move, but this time instead of seeking something, we surrender something. Such things as suffering, heartache, poverty, anger, all of the negative experiences that are known to man. These are the things that I would surrender. But can you not see that in the beginning it looks like that one is giving up, literally surrendering our human identity? And in a certain sense, this is true. But we will be born again. We are exchanging what we don’t want for what we do want.

This step is the admission that the outer self can’t cut it. You can use any language that you want, but there are no answers there, only problems. It’s that self that has been posing as us. It says, I am wise, I am strong, I am loving. Look at me, I am a nice guy. One day it must admit that it was never any of these things. In that moment of admission or of surrender, from that point on it becomes possible to believe that a power greater than this self can restore us to sanity. Unfortunately, I have seen many people wait too late in life to do this. You see when we are close to death, the ego deserts all of us.

The organization Al-Anon (support group for family members and friends of individuals with alcoholism) has a saying:

  • “I didn’t cause it. I can’t control it.” which means to surrender our expectations of being able to control the behavior of the alcoholic.

And here’s an everyday example. I first learned to play billiards by paying for the table and racking the balls just to get a good player to beat me. In other words, learning by doing. In affect I was surrendering to the better player. So, needless to say, I was all over this surrender principal when I became aware of it. And, it is was at this point that I had my first peak experience which literally consisted of an amazing out of body experience.

It had never happened before, so I wanted to know what was said in the Bible about these types of experiences when Jesus or his disciples healed people. What I found is that Jesus repeatedly told them not to tell anyone. Here are some scriptures where this advice was offered:

  • Mark 1:40-44 – Jesus heals a man with leprosy and instructs him: “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest.”
  • Mark 5:41-43 – After raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, Jesus tells the witnesses to keep silent about it.
  • Mark 7:31-36 – Jesus heals a deaf and mute man and orders him and others not to spread the news.
  • Luke 8:56 – After raising a young girl, Jesus tells her parents not to tell anyone.
  • Luke 5:14 - Jesus heals a man with leprosy and instructed him: “Do not tell anyone”.
  • Matthew 9:27-30 – Jesus heals two blind men and warns them sternly not to speak of it.

I think Jesus said this because the healed people’s new consciousness’ were just too fragile at this point. They needed more time to process being healed of leprosy, raised from the dead, etc. Think how amazed and bewildered they must’ve been. King Whitney Jr. (1925 - 2018) former president of Personnel Laboratory, Inc, said:

  • Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

Apostle Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:31):

  • “I die daily”. This means we must consistently surrender our own will, desires, and self-centeredness to God’s will and leading.

Starting over begins with a surrendering, the letting go of what was. If you’re still clinging to anything that was, let it go:

  • To a relationship that no longer exists, let it go.
  • To a dream that seemed to die, let it go so that you can begin to dream your real dreams again.
  • To memories of your failure in the past, let it go.

Begin to be aware of the powerlessness of your human condition, notice how many things you really cannot change, particularly people. And moment to moment surrender and ask God for the serenity to accept what you can’t change.

Let go of your ideas, of your pictures of how it should be and turn it over to God, you will find a peace that will amaze you and delight you. Also become aware that you do have the ability to change your thoughts and your feelings when you surrender. The ego will not go down easily so shorten your focus. Don’t look beyond today. At certain points in my life I didn’t look beyond eye blinks.

Change your attitude, your outlook. You can. And the moment that you do, there is an empowerment that comes that is so motivating for wanting more.

Surrender and Trust