SURRENDER!

August 31, 2020

This present age is full of violence—violence to the earth, violence to the animal kingdom, and even violence to the bodies, souls and spirits of those whom God created in His own image.

Violence becomes even more intense as momentous events approach: as the storm breaks, as the kingdom of God comes close.

12 And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it. 13 For before John came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time.

(Matthew 11:12-13)

Why is that?

Jesus said:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.“

(Matthew 10:34)

The scripture tells us that the Word of God is a 2-edged sword, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16)

The convicting blade of the sword can feel extremely violent. It strikes to the depths of our hearts— the place where we’ve stashed all the stuff that we try to hide from God and others—the domain of guilt and shame. I’ve had it happen. You probably have too.

The point is not that the storm comes or that violence strikes, though.

The point is how we respond.

Do we run and hide?

Do we deny that it is happening?

Do we put up a fight?

Or do we surrender?

The last 2 weeks have been a “perfect storm” for me: very hot weather for the alpacas, many crias being born in a short number of days, lots of clients and visitors to attend to, violence in a town where some of my kids live, mothers needing to be milked, a baby that died after 3 days, my dog Kallie being in heat, and the moment I have dreaded for 20 years— an alpaca dam went into labor with a tail-first breach presentation.

We had watched her for several hours and no progress was being made, which is almost always a bad sign. I did an exam and found 2 hocks (back knees) and a tail (instead if a head). In 20 years I have only seen 3 tail-first breaches, and none of them surivived, despite the vet being here to handle everything. To add to the tension, my previous vet was unreachable by phone, my current vet was out of town on vacation, AND the alpaca’s new owner was there to see the whole thing. No pressure! (she laughs wryly…)

And then, as we all breathed a prayer for God to help us, He moved in and took over. The shock, dread, and fear all melted away. We surrendered to the call.

I gathered together what I needed and thought through the procedure I had studied on paper many times. Tracy held the exhausted animal’s head, and Don stood by to do anything we needed him to do.

It was a “textbook” breach delivery. I fished the hind legs out, handed them to Don and said, “Pull, and don’t stop pulling.”

The problem with a breach birth is that the umbilicus breaks while the baby’s head is still in the womb, making it impossible to breathe. If you don’t get the head out immediately, the baby will suffocate. It’s a tense moment. Don gave it all he had, and the baby drew a breath as the head emerged. We helped her along with a little CPR and mouth-to-mouth, and in a minute or two she was standing.

I kicked my shoes off. I truly felt I was standing on Holy Ground.

Sometimes Surrender looks passive. This time, Surrender was very active and required skill and quick thinking. But Surrender is always the best response when God calls.

Think of Jesus’ response of Surrender to the Father’s Will.

First, He surrendered His place in heaven—His place at the right hand of the Father, His status as God/Creator.

Then He surrendered His will and became the Creature He had created.

And then He surrendered His desire to have the cup of crucifixion taken from Him.

And then…He surrendered to the pain of becoming Sin, separation from the Father, and Death.

What a beautiful picture of Surrender. He gave Himself for us, in so many ways.

Now He calls us to Surrender to His will, every minute. We need Him in order to do this, because if you’re like me, your Flesh doesn’t want to surrender to anything or anybody!

In those moments I whisper—or shout— “God, I need you!”, because as Paul points out, if I am not surrendering in Love, surrendering all I have is worthless.

We can strive to be strong, but it is only ends up being the "strength of human weakness", as my professor used to say. It is in our surrender that we stand with the power and wisdom and love of God when the storm overtakes us. We can't keep the storm from coming.

When the world would do us violence, it is only in surrender to Christ that we have a leg to stand on.

Scripture speaks over and over about surrender toward Him and one another— not hanging on for dear life to our “rights”, but giving them away, for they weren’t ours in the first place.

(Matt. 5:21-48; Isaiah 53; Philippians 2:3-4)

Our worth and our identity are based on God’s creation of us and His love for us.

It’s not based on anything we do.

We can’t please Him more or cause Him to love us more.

Sometimes as a spiritual discipline I sit and do absolutely nothing for 1/2 an hour, just to remind myself that what counts is who I am in Christ-- not anything I do.

Of course some have done great things. Think of David or Paul or Noah or Abraham. But without their surrender to God, their works would have counted for nothing. And so it is with us.