We’ll be talking in worship today about “Soul Surrender.” Surrender is heard with almost wholly negative connotations in our cultural context. It brings up imagery in our minds of waving a white flag, of losing. And it is about losing. It’s about losing control - or really, about losing the illusion that we were ever in control in the first place. And what faith invites us to do is to replace that grasping for control with a willingness to trust.

Trust is essential food for the soul. We cannot become soul-centered without leaning more fully into trust. Trust is what frees us to truly be us.

John Ortberg writes: “How do you get the freedom that your soul craves? This is the great irony about freedom. To become truly free, you must surrender. Surrender is not a popular concept. It goes against everything we think we know about being free. Wars are not won by surrendering. Have you ever seen a football team surrender in the Super Bowl? But surrender is the only way to achieve freedom for your soul.

If you want to free your soul, you acknowledge that there is a spiritual order that God has designed for you. You are not the center of the universe. You are the not the master of your fate. There is a God. It is not you. True freedom comes when you embrace God’s overall design for the world and your place in it.”

Be free… by giving up. Surrender.