No. 1

Lifeline
What I’ve learned on my journey so far …

… it’s not necessarily a long list of , but what I think it’s a useful list.

As my kids have gotten older and started there own lives without parents to touch base with on a daily basis, here are some of the items on those list that I’ve hoped they’ve really heard:

1. Learn to want what you already have.
2. A relationship that lasts 30 seconds can be as important to your life as a relationship that lasts 30 years
3. Why would you pay a company to wear their logo all over your body? Shouldn’t they be paying you to be their billboard?
4. Clearly the Lord loves wondrous variety, so why try to be like everyone else?
5. Often, when you are feeling completely alone, you just have to be quiet and get out of your own way so you can hear what God is trying to tell you.

Of course, none of this is easy to do 100 percent of the time, but “easy” is not why we’re here. If life were meant to be easy, my life wouldn’t include struggles like heart-breaking fights with my husband, emulating Christ in a world that idolizes the likes of Paris Hilton and Ann Coulter, what am I doing with this career, and dogs who shed enough hair in the spring to create an alternative energy source all by themselves. We are here to challenge ourselves and mess up.

When I think about surrendering, I think of it as being wrapped up in how our lives unfold as people of God. Surrendering is also accepting that we, because God created us the way we are, bring wonderful things the world around us. It might be a certain talent or skill, the gift of our time or a shoulder to cry on. Only by surrendering ourselves, our troubles and our prayers to the will of God can we more accurately embody what God meant for us during our walk on this planet.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
~Nelson Mandela

I am often struck by the misinterpretation of the word “surrender,” as if it were always a sign of weakness or hopelessness. On the contrary, it is often the most courageous thing things you can do. Through Lent and Easter especially we are reminded of this by Jesus’ ultimate acts of surrender.

Indeed, the most striking evidence of Jesus' majesty, the one that clearly distinguishes Jesus' kingship from all others, is his physical location: on the cross between prisoners. Here, King Jesus is at his full majesty. The one bearing through his own free will the burden of all our fears, our hatred, our scandalous refusal to be free is our king. This broken man, rejected by God, forsaken, and reviled even by the criminal next to him, is the king whom we honor today. In this glorious act of surrender and hope, of unshakable fidelity to his people, Jesus embodies true royalty for all who shall follow him. Let no one be mistaken—if you seek worldly power and influence, look elsewhere. This is the king of surrender, who allowed himself to be broken so that he could call us to resurrection through our own brokenness. And when our little mustard seeds of faith allow us to surrender with him, "Amen, I say to you...you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43).

Living the Word: Wake Up! by Michaela Bruzzese
Column on Sojourners, an online periodical on faith, politics and culture (www.sojo.net)