Friday, March 14, 2008

DodgeBall, Submission and Life!


SUBMISSION! Wow what a nasty word. The definition of it means to be compliant or humble. To truly submit, you must yield to the authority and control of another. Sure it’s an ugly word in our so-called liberated society, but we all still do it. It does not matter your role in life we all are submitted in some form or another. Yet often our memories of submission are negative and recall pain of being stepped on. Thus we rebel against the ideas and lose it’s benefits.

I am certain most of us had a childhood moment of standing in line waiting to be picked by the opposite teams. Whether it was kickball, dodge-ball or football we submitted to the authority of the team captain. Boy it stunk to be picked last, almost like; “well since I have to even out the teams you can play”, a embarrassing situation. Or what about the war of the roses: where man tries to control the women and tell her what to do because “he’s the man” or the woman constantly belittles her husband because “she knows better”. Someone has to give in at sometime and when they do often another negative experience occurs.

What if I told you that submission is actually positive, life-giving? What if submission never has to be negative? Because of one person, Jesus Christ, taking all the negative impact of submission and what is left over is only the benefits. The rub comes in where we have to submit to Him. And not just us, but for it to truly work our spouses, our kids, our companies, our governments all need to submit to His authority. We have to leave the results, the justice, the final curtain call up to Him. To gain His benefits of we have to submit our goals, our dreams, our jobs, our families our bad choices, our good choices, our finances, our schooling, our marriages, our relationships, everything needs to be offered to Him. When we genuinely do this, we surrender the outcome to His will and as a result we don’t have to worry about it. Yet, the same evil in us and this world that twists submission makes us unable to accomplish it. We need something greater than us to help us

C.S. Lewis said “…we now need God’s help in order to do something which God, in His own nature, never does at all—to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die….You and I can go through this process only if God does it in us….”

(Psalm 73:26) “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

No comments: