Copyright 2014 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved
There are times in our lives when we must realize that we have done everything we can to resolve a problem and now there are only two remaining things to do. The first is to give the entire circumstance to God. The second is to wait for Him to do what we cannot.
In mythology the Gordian Knot was a knot so large and complicated that it could not be unraveled by mortal effort. We all have had, or will have, such knots in our own existence. These are the problems that we simply do not have the ability to resolve, even with the character God has built into us so far during our years of Christian growth. We have marshaled what seems to be every ounce of will and wisdom we have and applied it to the issue. Based on this we may even have taken decisive action, but still have found no answer, easy or otherwise. The problem remains and we feel at our wit’s end about it.
The term “surrender” has become somewhat of a cliché in the Church. We are often urged to “surrender” our problems and, for that matter, our lives to God. Because we hear this particular exhortation so often it tends to lose a sense of urgency, even of reality, after a while. But the need for such surrender is an absolute necessity for any progress in being conformed to the image of Christ. One of the ways we are led towards it is through facing seemingly impossible problems.
The most effective thing we can do, when we have given what we feel to be our level best to resolve such problems and failed, is to pray (and ask our brothers and sisters in the faith to pray with us) for a divine solution. We then purpose to wait, for however long it takes, on almighty God. Once we have chosen to lay our burden down before Him we can simply continue to live our lives. We have done all we can. We can do no more than hold to the best previously discernible course and trust that our Lord will untangle our personal Gordian Knot through His power without our help or, perhaps more succinctly, without our flesh’s help.
This, it seems to me, is what it means to “cease from striving” in the best sense of the term. It is real surrender to a faithful God Whom we trust will do what we cannot…. and in that surrender is our peace.