I have been wanting to write about SURRENDER, but I can’t seem to find the words.
Thankfully, my dear squadmates, Summer Smith, Bev Rhoades, and Angi Francesco have.
Check out their original blogs by clicking on their highlighted names above,
and read my borrowed & compiled version below.
* * *
“Grab a piece of wood and write down some of your struggles
that the Lord wants you to surrender to Him.
You have five minutes. Then, you’ll be going on a hike with your piece of wood.”
that the Lord wants you to surrender to Him.
You have five minutes. Then, you’ll be going on a hike with your piece of wood.”
Where to begin with a prompt like that?
I started the list with pride, self-reliance, and …
At the beginning of the walk, I noticed the flowers, the trees, the path —
all the things in Nature that I love.
Carrying my log didn’t seem that burdensome.
I can even remember thinking to myself, “This isn’t that bad… I can do this.”
all the things in Nature that I love.
Carrying my log didn’t seem that burdensome.
I can even remember thinking to myself, “This isn’t that bad… I can do this.”
With each step, however, the log got heavier and harder to carry, until it really became a struggle.
The Lord said, “I know what you are feeling.
I carried a cross with the weight of the world on my shoulders.
I died and gave my life for you.”
The Lord said, “I know what you are feeling.
I carried a cross with the weight of the world on my shoulders.
I died and gave my life for you.”
Then the Lord started to whisper about more things He wanted me to surrender for Him:
my hopes and dreams, my judgments, the ways I keep God in a box,
broken relationships that still hurt, my tendency to be people-pleasing…
the list continued on.
broken relationships that still hurt, my tendency to be people-pleasing…
the list continued on.
I realized that the log I had been carrying was symbolic of my heart.
There is a “thick rough bark” making my heart hard,
and inside, too, my heart has so much “dirt.”
There is a “thick rough bark” making my heart hard,
and inside, too, my heart has so much “dirt.”
It is only through the blood of Jesus Christ that those things can be healed and washed clean.
As I continued to walk and God continued to speak,
I started to understand that there was no guilt or shame in having to surrender these issues.
Instead, it was about FREEDOM and becoming more of the person that God made me to be.
I started to understand that there was no guilt or shame in having to surrender these issues.
Instead, it was about FREEDOM and becoming more of the person that God made me to be.
At various stations along the path, our leaders had handed me markers with which to
add words and images representing the things I needed to surrender to the Lord.
By the end of the hike, I was totally SICK of carrying all of the garbage in my life.
I climbed up to the top of a ranger tower where our leaders had placed a cross.
After a few minutes of sitting in reverence and thinking about the list, I felt God whisper, “It is finished,” and with a resolute toss, I dropped that log on a pile of tinder to be burned at the foot of the cross.
It was such a release to leave my burdens there.
I didn’t want to carry them any more.
I gave them up for Him.
