SURRENDER

 Everything was a mess.  The wedding was over, but the remains were all over my home.  It was time to clean up and put away.  I boxed everything up, identified each box and began to carry to storage.  One trip after another the boxes were carefully tucked away until the next wedding. One trek after another seemed like an eternity.  Would I ever get finished?

I started getting careless and decided to take a shortcut through the grass while carrying a stack of boxes.  I seemed to forget just how tall the concrete was.  The end of my shoe became caught on the top of the sidewalk and the boxes and I went tumbling down.  I was brought to my knees quickly. The jolt of hitting the concrete had sent pain throughout my body.  My knee, hip and elbow had kissed the pavement.  I sat there for a minute in disbelief, but reminding myself I am not as young as I use to be.  I looked down and saw the blood streaming from my knee and the scrap down my arm.  My hip was hurting but thank goodness I hadn’t broken anything.  I regained my composure and I got up. 

I was extremely glad that I had no broken bones, but it brought me back to a time in my life that I was broken.  I can remember it like yesterday, when I felt as if I had walked into a brick wall with no protection.   I was making no progress anywhere in my life.  I was held prisoner between the walls of my home in a depression that I couldn’t bring myself out of.  I had tried everything, nothing worked.  It was the result of hiding behind the fig leaves of life that had finally brought me to see the concrete face to face. My whole being had kissed the pavement.  Jolts of awareness were sent throughout my body.  Tears flowed from my eyes and my arms reached towards the heavens.  I felt dead, however I was alive. 

I was brought to my knees.  It was in a split second that I realized I had nothing only the Lord.  I had to completely rely on Him and no one else.  Others couldn’t help me.  It was at that split second when I realized that only the Lord could bring me back to life.  It was the Lord and only the Lord that could bring me down to embracing the concrete and surrendering completely.  My life as I once knew it was trailing off behind me and the new was settling in beside me. 

Once on the battlefield I was now a soldier with my general standing in front of me.  My whole self I had given to Him.  I wanted Him to use me for His good.   I had surrendered to Him and saw the promises that He had for me.  From that point on His plans for my life walked in the forefront of my days. 

Carrie ten Boom said, “Don’t pray when you feel like it.  Have an appointment with and keep it.  A man is powerful on his knees.”  It is when we are brought to our knees in surrender that we aren’t weak but strong because of Him.