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The Power of Surrender and Trust.
Jesus told His disciples, repeatedly, and continues to tell us, Why do you fear? Do not be afraid, and do not worry about your lives.
Anxiety, fear, and worry have been a constant presence in my life. Ever since I was a child, I began to worry about everything, and for years, I had not stopped. I indulged in my worries until I became consumed by them.
So many things and situations in the world and in our lives can make us feel unsafe. I was always working hard to give myself a sense of safety by trying to control everything around and within me. I bound myself in many nerve-wracking knots.
Well-meaning adults told me I was just shy, an introvert. They dismissed my overly sensitive outbursts and highly emotional reactions as part of my personality. And I believed them. They expected that a little tough love would make me snap out of it.
The worry persisted, it grew, and became stronger. Catastrophes were always waiting just around the corner.
But God did not mean for us to live a life consumed by worry. His Plan A was one completely free from any of the daily toil and troubles that take away our inner peace.
Worry, anxiety, and fear are products of the ugly seed planted in the souls of our first parents by the lies of the enemy. By breaking their trust in God and refusing to surrender to His Will, Adam and Eve became physically and spiritually separated from the love, peace, and safety of the Father.
They brought upon themselves and the rest of humanity the trials of an earthly life of worry, anxiety, and fear.
Over the past month, I’ve been going through the book “Jesus I Trust in You,” a 30-day Personal Retreat with the Litany of Trust.
I’ve also been consistently praying the Surrender Novena.
Both the Litany of Trust and the Surrender Novena are helping me let go of my need to control everything, and the frustration that comes with the inability to control anything other than my choices, and how I respond to my lack of control.
When the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual storms hit us, the very human response is to get all hands on deck, grab the helm, tug frantically at the sails, drop anchor, and if all else fails, abandon ship. Jesus is asking us to do the unthinkable.
Anxiety about the future
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?”
Matthew 6:25-34
Why are you anxious about the future? Is it because you don’t know what might happen? Or because you do know and are already anticipating emotional or physical pain or discomfort?
Are you anxious out of a desire to control every factor and every scenario? Are you anxious because you don’t believe you can rely on others, or because you don’t trust God?
A deep lack of trust in God is at the root of our greatest anxieties. There’s just so much we can manage to do on our own. So much we can manage to do with the help of other people.
There’s no limit to what we can do with God. But first, we have to learn how to trust Him. We have to uproot the seed of original sin. We have to become children again.
Childlike dependency on God doesn’t mean we don’t have to lift a finger. It means we do our best, put in the effort, the work, the love, and then we hold on to the hand of our heavenly Father.
We let Him act. Don’t fight, don’t struggle, don’t question. We let ourselves be guided and cared for, as children.
Moments of anxiety offer us an opportunity to lean on God. Accepting that we won’t be able to move an inch further on our own, but only by relying and aligning with the Will of God.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7
Preoccupation with the past
It’s a challenge to let go of the past, especially of the mistakes we made, the hurts that were inflicted on us, or the ones we caused. Our minds can go down a rabbit hole of shame, guilt, and regret.
What ifs about the past serve no purpose in our lives.
Ruminating on the past keeps us stuck in a dark and lonely place. In this life, there’s so much brokenness, hardship, and evil that will never have an explanation.
We should, of course, aim to learn from the past, from our mistakes, and from our failures. We should aim to do our best once we know best. That’s part of our ongoing conversion.
“The LORD is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts.”
Psalm 28:7
Trusting God and trusting in His plan is the ultimate antidote for both anxiety about the future and preoccupation with the past.
When there’s no clear view of the road ahead or explanation about what happened, trust God. At every moment of every day of your life, He is sustaining the heavens and the earth, the visible and the invisible. Your life is part of His plan and His story.
Sometimes, the past weighs heavily on us because of things we did, did not do, said, did not say. Or because of things others did or said to us. That’s when giving and accepting forgiveness is necessary to let the past go.
Forgiving others and forgiving ourselves frees us from the shackles of past mistakes and past hurts. In this life, we can only move forward. With the help of God and the graces of the Holy Spirit, we’ll move forward with wisdom.
“Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you.”
Psalm 55:22
Self-seeking in the present
Are we constantly preoccupied with ourselves, our own needs, our own concerns? Are we always looking for ways to be recognized, celebrated, and rewarded by the world?
Professional achievements and worldly success play a role in our lives, but they should not represent the whole aim and ultimate source of our joy, peace, or identity.
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11
If we only seek what we desire, our pleasure and satisfaction, regardless of what it might take from our souls, we stumble right into the realm of vices, sin, and the hands of the enemy.
Sometimes we look for pleasure to numb, ignore, hide, or run away from pain. We want to avoid suffering at all costs. But suffering is part of this life. The consequence of original sin. God did not want this for us. We chose it for ourselves.
Paradise was lost, but God did not abandon us. We don’t have to suffer alone. God is with us in our suffering.
Self-seeking is what made us fall. Adam and Eve let themselves be fooled by the enemy because they sought to satisfy their own will apart from God. They wanted to take their lives into their own hands, without realizing they were not theirs to begin with.
Our life is a gift from God. We are given this gift to seek Him, to love and worship Him, to abide in Him, co-create with Him, for eternity. That’s what our first parents missed, out of hubris.
We experience this life moment by moment, yet the ultimate aim is everlasting life in union with God. Seek Him.
“And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling… And they woke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do you not care if we perish?’ And He awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’”
Mark 4:37-40
What we need to reflect upon and deeply understand is that during the most violent storms of our lives, Jesus is with us in the boat.
Anxiety, fear, and worry are ways in which the enemy tries to agitate us, and many times succeeds. And we sometimes believe that the remedy is doing more. That belief keeps us trapped in the endless loop of self-reliance and human initiative.
Break the loop, stop doing, start being. Surrender and trust.
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