Like Elsa, This Year I Will “Let It Go”
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I have never been the type of person to make New Year’s resolutions. I guess I feel that any time of year is a good time to focus on self-improvement. However, I have a friend who chooses a theme word at the beginning of each calendar year and I am intrigued by the concept. So this year, I have decided to focus on the word “surrender.”
The word “surrender” has a negative connotation in our culture. It makes us think of giving up or giving in to an enemy. But followers of Christ know the concept of surrender as giving in to a loving Heavenly Father rather than a foe. We surrender our desires and our agenda to follow God’s plan.
The concept of surrender makes me think of the Biblical account of Elijah’s interaction with the widow at Zarephath, found in 1 Kings, chapter 17. There is drought and famine in the land, and the widow has only enough oil and flour to make one last meal for herself and her son, after which she expects to die of starvation. But the prophet Elijah tells her to share her bread with him because God has promised her supply of flour and oil will not run out.
The widow recognizes Elijah as a prophet of God and so she surrenders her plan and gives him a loaf of bread. Then, God fulfills His promise! Her supply of flour and oil are miraculously replenished until the drought and famine are over.
But life is not smooth sailing after that miracle. Some time later, her son is near death and is not breathing. The widow asks Elijah if he brought death upon her son to punish her for her sins. Once again, the widow is told to surrender – surrender her son. She does surrender her son to the prophet and he is healed.
I studied this Biblical passage this week as I began my focus on the word “surrender” and there are two points I noticed:
“Surrender means trusting God even when it doesn’t make sense.”
Share your food when you don’t even have enough to feed yourself? And supplies will be replenished even though we know oil and flour do not appear out of thin air?! This thought encourages me to surrender my worries even in the seemingly impossible situations with health problems, relationship struggles…
“Surrender is an ongoing process, not a ‘one and done’ exercise.”
Even after the miraculous experience with the unending supply of oil and flour, the widow experiences another tragic situation: her son is near death. She is called to surrender again. So, I fully expect my journey of surrender will be a daily discipline.
Surrender does not come naturally for me. I am a woman who likes to be in control and get things done. But many situations are out of my control, especially in my current stage of life (y’all know that I have two teenagers at home, right?). So, it just makes sense to surrender to God who is in control and is infinitely more capable than I am!
So, this year I will be regularly reminding myself to be like Elsa and “let it go.” Instead of fighting and wrestling to grasp control of situations, I am going to use the beginning of this new year to take on a posture of surrender. Literally, several times each day, I am opening my palms upward in surrender to God.
How about you? Do you find it difficult to surrender?