Surrendering Your Life: For those who follow my ramblings, you know that I attended a funeral yesterday. It was a precious and solemn occasion, and everything was conducted in a thoughtful and respectful way. I was thankful to be there, and afterward, thankful to be home. There was one expression the minister used while addressing the mixed congregation of church members, family, friends, and visitors that has been bouncing around in my head ever since. It wasn’t some complicated theological statement. In fact, it was a very simple phrase that most of us have probably heard many times over the years. The appeal was to ‘surrender your life.”
Now I’m thinking. What exactly does that mean? How often have we heard someone say that we need to ‘surrender our lives to Christ’? I have heard the expression countless times, yet the more I think about it, the more questions it raises. What exactly is being surrendered? How does a person know when he has done it? Is surrender a one-time act, a daily act, or a lifelong process? If two believers describe surrender very differently, how do we determine which one has surrendered correctly? Those are the kinds of questions that come to mind when I hear language like this. They are not objections so much as attempts to understand. Sometimes a phrase becomes so common in conversation that we assume everyone knows what it means, even when there may be very different ideas hiding beneath the same words. If anyone would like to help me think through it, I’m all ears.
I don’t usually use illustrations, but I recently heard something similar used to make a different point, and it got me thinking: A man leaves a funeral service determined to surrender his life. On the drive home he wonders if he has surrendered enough. He turns off the radio. That feels spiritual. Then he wonders if true surrender means selling his motorcycle. Maybe he should stop watching baseball. Perhaps he should spend more time in prayer and less time pursuing his own interests. By the time dinner rolls around, he’s sitting across from his beautiful wife and suddenly wondering whether he’s even allowed to enjoy himself anymore. By bedtime he is no longer sure whether he is drawing closer to Christ or simply becoming suspicious of everything he enjoys. The next morning he meets another Christian who hasn’t given up any of those things and seems perfectly happy. Suddenly, he feels more confused than when he started. If that sounds familiar, it’s because many of us have discovered that christian terminology is sometimes easier to repeat than to define.
At that point, a few more questions arise. If surrender is the doorway to Christ, how much surrender is enough? If it is the evidence of Christ, how much surrender is required before we can know it is genuine? And if the answer ultimately depends on measuring our level of commitment, have we shifted our attention from Christ and His finished work to ourselves and our performance? I am not suggesting that believers should live however they please. I am simply wondering whether Scripture calls sinners to measure their surrender, or whether it calls them to look unto Christ. MPJ