Surrender!

If you have seen the movie, Breakthrough, you might recall the scene where the mom is yelling at God to save her son. She is throwing up her hands and is really angry at God that her son is still unresponsive, and being kept alive by machines. Can you imagine, this is a woman who is full of faith, does all kinds of good works for her church, family and community – why isn’t God giving her what she is praying for?

And then….she has a deep exhalation of breath and says (paraphrased), “All right God, I surrender! It is all in your hands, I totally surrender to you.” I won’t spoil the outcome at that moment in the movie for those of you who have not seen it, but it was a game changer.

I started thinking: What was this total surrender? What did it feel like? Have I done this? If not, can I do this? I know the Blessed Mother did this. I know that Jesus did this. I think I do this sometimes, but I don’t think I am totally surrendering to God.

After much thought for the last couple of weeks, here is how I imagine this feeling of total surrender to God’s will and plan in my life. I picture myself in an operating room, getting ready for some major surgery where I’ll get general anesthetic. And you know, they give you that ‘relaxing’ potion ahead of time to relax. That to me would be the first stage of total surrender to God – totally relaxed and not even thinking about what comes next. And then the good stuff where you count backwards from 10 and only get to 8.5. THAT feeling.

Is this what it feels like, to totally surrender to God? To trust that He’s got this?

What does it feel like to you?