From Clinging and Grasping to Surrender

Clinging to a past remembered. Clinging to the comforts of now. 

Grasping for a future idealized. Grasping for more.

Clinging and grasping - these are postures with which we may be too well acquainted. 

Both are animations of self-preservation. Both are illusions of control. As David Benner says, both are the "rule of life lived in the kingdom of self."

When I look at Jesus, though, I don't see clinging or grasping; I see surrender. Not cold, perfunctory obedience, but joyful surrender as one securely known and held by the love of Abba Father. 

God's perfect love drives out fear. There is freedom in surrender. There is abundance and joy on the other side of surrender. On the other side of clinging and grasping, we only find anxiety, discontentment, and a realization that the yawning ache for life and peace continues to consume us.

Where is Jesus inviting you to surrender?