The Road to Surrender

There are many beautiful lessons to be learned as we strive to be more surrendered to God. I could write volumes on the various things that He has brought to my attention in that regard. But for today's post, I am keeping things simple -- just about as simple as a lesson can be.

The Persian Poet Hafiz understood the ways of God, and this poem says more about the topic of surrender than I could ever write:

Tripping Over Joy

What is the difference between your experience of existence than that of a saint?

The saint knows that the spiritual path is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved has just made such a fantastic move that the saint is now tripping over joy and bursting out in laughter and saying, "I surrender!"

Whereas, my dear, I am afraid you still think you have a thousand serious moves.

At the time my friend, Mary Lou, introduced me to Hafiz, I was only scratching the surface of a deep, deep topic. As I began to surrender more and more areas of my life to Jesus, the more He showed me how much I was holding back. It seemed like a never-ending quest -- Hafiz recognized it as such. And even though He wins in the end, we have the joy and victory of having surrendered to His will. I love the paradoxical nature of God's Truths!