WEEK FOUR: SURRENDER

On Saturday evening, April 19, 2025, our area was hit with a devastating storm that caused destruction to homes, businesses, and organizations. Trees and powerlines were knocked down and a large portion of our area was without power for multiple days. For us personally, we lost power for a total of three days. It is in those kinds of moments that you realize just how “powerless” (pun intended) you are when something like this happens (and in our specific case, just how reliant we are on our local power company for the normal routine of life). So when the storm hit and we realized that we may be without electricity for a while, we (like many others) went into “fix it” mode, trying to come up with a plan or a solution to restore or keep power to things like our refrigerator and freezer. However, no matter how hard we worked or what we were able to do, none of those efforts were able to broadly get power back into the homes in our neighborhood.

We all know the feeling: the frustration of trying so hard and pouring in all your effort, only to find yourself exhausted and still facing failure. Maybe you’ve worked tirelessly to fix a problem, but it only gets worse. Maybe you’ve put in hours of practice for a goal, but you come up short. We can begin to take on the mindset that if we just work harder or persistently stay at it, this will solve the problem. But maybe the answer isn’t in more trying; maybe the answer is in learning to trust more.

Often as Jesus followers, we push hard against life, thinking “if I do more I will get where I need to go.” In reality, we are just tiring ourselves out when we should be surrendering to God and trusting him to carry us through. Romans 8:31 tells us, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” This is a powerful reminder that, even when our hard work doesn’t seem to be getting us where we want to or need to be, our victory doesn’t come from us but from God’s power. It is in these moments of our lack that God’s power can shine through.

This requires a radical shift in perspective. Instead of seeing our challenges as things we need to overcome by our own effort, we need to see them as opportunities to surrender and trust God. When we surrender, we’re trusting God to move us forward.