What holds you back? If you are anything like me, which I’m sure you are, then you have stuff in your life that is holding you back. My natural tendency, however, is to hold on to the stuff. I have thoughts, behaviors, habits, and more that keep me from my preferred future. So just “let it go,” they say. I wish it were that easy.

This concept came to mind recently while listening to a song that has been bringing me to tears lately.  My actual thought was, “Why is it so difficult for me to turn myself over entirely to a God who is entirely good?” Maybe it has to do with a not-entirely-good experience of imperfect people in an imperfect world. I don’t really have a good answer, but I have some thoughts.

We read words like “lose your life,” “cast your anxieties,” “be a living sacrifice” in the Bible. Yet I would rather keep my life (at least parts of it), carry my anxieties, and be a living recipient of everyone else’s sacrifice. What I have found though is that the difference between “letting it go” and surrender is having someone to receive the stuff. This is where I meet God’s grace…right where I am least worthy of it. Jesus is the one who has already taken the stuff on himself. Having someone to whom I can surrender it is what motivates me to do just that.

One way that I keep myself from full surrender is to isolate myself. As I keep my thoughts inside and avoid people, I am actually less likely to turn over the areas of my life where I need God’s grace the most. To be at my best, I need other people. You do to. We need one another more than we even realize. I think this is one of the reasons why the earliest followers of Jesus were able to surrender so much of themselves so quickly, because they were devoted to one another. This is the kind of community that will continue to transform people and motivate us to surrender more of ourselves in order to experience true life.

This coming weekend we are starting a new series at 801South that we are calling One Anothering. To best prepare for our next semester of Small Groups launching in September, we will be looking at how we can best serve one another, care for one another, encourage one another, and grow one another. I hope you can be a part of this series as we struggle to surrender together!

See you Sunday. Bring a friend. Invite a stranger.