Surrender

"...the gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart.  New desires.  New longings.  For the first time, we want God.  We see our need for him, and we love him.  We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation.  We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we are saved to know God.  So we yearn for him.  We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him.  This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel."  --David Platt (Radical, p. 39)

In his book, Radical, David Platt challenges Christians to extricate our faith from the American Dream.  As I read through the second chapter today, I couldn't help but think about how I've been settling for mediocrity and this life over radical faith and abandonment for the gospel; I've become too comfortable.  As I noticed more recently, my dreams and hopes have become more about what I want rather than what is best for the Kingdom.  In short, I need to surrender.

As I think further about surrender, I can't help but think that if I truly desired to live fully for God's Kingdom, why wouldn't I pursue vocational ministry?  Why wouldn't I pour all my time and efforts into reaching the lost every second of the day?  And yet, I know that God needs people in all sectors of society, as businessmen and women, as teachers, as doctors, as lawyers.  To surrender means to yield my thoughts and dreams, even my ideas of what would be best for the Kingdom and instead, to trust in God's wisdom.  I might think that my best contribution to furthering God's Kingdom is by pursuing full-time vocational ministry, but God, in His infinite wisdom, has called me (I think) to be a missionary in my workplace as a teacher, at least for the time being.  Surrender means being ready to go wherever God is calling me to do whatever God is calling me, whenever God is calling me.  It is saying, "Here am I, send me."

Questions for myself:  Am I fully surrendered to God?  How can I do more?  How can I give more?