Day Twenty-Four

Day Twenty–Four // March 16 // Surrendered

“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders and interfering with God’s work within us.” – A. W. Tozer –

His was a biography of submission. Born into the world He had created, from His first drawn breath, Jesus’ life was one of surrender. A King who surrendered His throne. The Lord who relinquished His awe. He was the Master who became the Servant of all. The Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus emptied Himself (Philippians 2:7) to inhabit two worlds – and He did so perfectly. Perfectly obedient. Perfectly humble. Perfectly meek. With His every day – and especially with His last – our Lord showed us what it is to live in perfect relationship to God.

And His feet told that story well. Calloused and rugged, worn by the miles that He’d walked, Jesus went where no one else would. He went to the outcast and marginalized. He went to the beat up and let down. By

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the shores of the sea and in the wilderness, alike, He modeled for us what it is to surrender our every thought, word, and deed – our every step – to the Father.

It was heroic. His love. His grace. His boldness. His redemption. The Good News He shared with those religion had long forgotten. It was heroic to leave the comfort and safety of the long-trod paths of tradition. It was heroic to stray from the well-lit boulevards of high-browed acceptability. It was heroic to follow God’s path – being the One God called Him to be, the One we needed Him to be. But He did so. He followed His calling, and He followed His feet into the ordinary and needy places where God, through Him, did the extraordinary.

And we are commanded to follow the same path, to journey the same harrowing road. As has been said, we can’t rightfully call ourselves followers of the way of Jesus Christ if we’re not actually following Jesus. Is it scary? Sometimes. Is it challenging? Always. Is it worth it? Without a doubt! But it means that we will have to surrender. It means that we will have to depart from the broad and ever-widening paths of this world… but they never lead to the narrow gate of salvation, anyway (Matthew 7:13). It means that we will have to remove the comfortable slippers of middling and cultural Christianity we’ve worn for too long, to lace up our running shoes, our climbing shoes, our hiking boots, our combat boots. For these are the apparel of those clad to spread the “gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:10-17). This is the surrendered way of real, life-giving faith.