Reaching the end of our own plans?

This week our reflection is brought to you by Sally Taylor and Lucy Bolster from Ember. Rural Ministries is partnering with Ember to help churches and communities talk openly about their future.

As we move through Lent, many people discover an invitation to let go and surrender. This process brings freedom, but it is not without struggle and pain.

Surrender means to give up or hand over to someone else.

Jesus talks about surrender in Luke 9 v23-25. Even He found it hard to surrender all of what He was to the will of the Father and to suffering. He sweated blood, He cried out to the Father to take it from Him, He wrestled, He tried to rely on His friends to help Him, but they kept falling asleep!

It is a fundamental part of our Christian journey.

It’s a daily practice – it brings us to the realisation that we can do nothing without God. We are called as Christians to be dependent on God. We are called to live in Him, and He in us, like a vine and branches (see John 15).

To surrender is to make a decision.

We need only to look at Mary, Jesus’ mother. The power of the Holy Spirit came over Mary as she died to herself, as she surrendered her will and future to the Father’s will and future.

Surrendering creates a space for God to come in and take over, for His will to be done and His kingdom to come. William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army often prayed with his wife Catherine, at their kitchen table; crying out for God to move. He famously said that “the greatness of a man or woman’s power is the ability to surrender”.

Today could be a key moment for us and our churches. It may feel like we have reached the end of all our own plans. Do we go His way or our own, do we give up control or do we hold on?

Sally and Lucy, as ordained pioneer ministers with facilitative and coaching skills, have been creating “Ember” spaces which allow fellowships and congregations to be brave about discussing surrender and endings. They visit groups who are exploring the future for their community (churches, organisations or missional communities). Together, in a supportive, creative and worshipful space; participants are invited to lay down their own agendas, to face the emotional reality of endings, and be ready to move forward with trust in God, who walks with us through all seasons of life.

Thomas Merton’s Prayer of Abandonment:

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

nor do I really know myself,

and the fact that I think I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though

I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

Rev Sally Taylor

Rev Lucy Bolster

Ember