Surrendering in Love

For the past several weeks I have been reading and re-reading Richard Rohr’s book, Immortal Diamond – The Search for our True Self. It was the inspiration for my Lenten series, Loving the Self, and it continues to offer me new perspectives on some archaic Christian teachings and open my mind to new spiritual concepts. Most recently, Father Rohr has given me new insight on the concept of “God’s Will.”

Father Rohr states, “I do not believe the will of God is a theory, an argued moral theology, or an abstraction in any form; it is seeking the truth of each situation in that situation as best as we can figure it out. What else could God ask of humanity…?” 

I had not heard that interpretation of the will of God before reading this book. While my understanding may not be precisely the meaning that Father Rohr intended, my clarity around his statement is that the will of God is that each of us realize the activity of God, which I define as Divine Love – in every situation to the best of our ability.

It says to me that the will of God is not a plan that some God-being has devised to which we must surrender, rather the will of God is that we choose to see the Truth in every person and situation. The expression of Divine Love is the Truth of each situation and person, beyond any outer appearance.  And, the activity of Divine Love is always for the highest good for all concerned. It is helpful for us to understand that the highest good for all may or may not be in agreement with what you or I evaluate as “good.”  This is evidenced in the story of the arrest, passion and crucifixion of our way shower Jesus Christ.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week during which we reflect on the final week of Jesus’ physical life. My lesson title for this week is Surrendering in Love. As I ponder Palm Sunday and the idea of “surrendering,” the Biblical account of Jesus praying “not my will, but thy will be done” in the Garden of Gethsemane comes to mind.

From a Unity perspective, Jesus’ prayer does not indicate, as many Christians assert, that he was surrendering to God’s edict that he be crucified in order to save us from our sins. He was, instead surrendering his ideas of how he, from a personality perspective, would have preferred this scenario to unfold. I feel certain that he did not initially see his situation as “good.” However, instead of lamenting his plight or seeing himself as a victim, Jesus made a conscious choice to let go of his “will” and witness the activity of God – Divine Love – moving and acting in the situation. Thus, according to Rohr’s interpretation, Jesus was embracing and embodying the will of God.

Unity minister and author, Reverend Linda Martella-Whisett, in her book Divine Audacity, explains this interpretation eloquently. She restates Jesus’ prayer as an affirmation and expounds on that idea as follows:

“’May I envision and live out the unifying power of divine love at the heart of all that is.’ Nowhere in this interpretation is it presumed that a supernatural being wills or demands a particular course of action from any human. No condition or circumstance is sent to us by the will of any superior sentient being. In other words, God cannot require us to do anything, and God cannot be a doer of anything, because God is not like a person. God, the One Mind and Power throughout the cosmos, is eternal life, infinite love, ever-present wisdom, and all spiritual power. Therefore, “your will” is the fulfillment of life, love, and wisdom – all spiritual power.”

When we view the final week of Jesus’ life through the lens of “surrendering in love,” we can see that from his ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, to turning over the tables in the temple, celebrating the Eucharist with his disciples, praying in the garden, his arrest, trial, persecution, and finally crucifixion that at each juncture he was faced with the choice to surrender to the Truth – the activity of Divine Love – which he chose in every situation. Through his life and death, he exampled for us what it means to surrender in love and embody the will of God.

I invite us, as we move into the observance of Holy Week, to examine our own lives. Where are we determined to persist in our ideas of the way things should be even though doing so may stimulate pain and suffering for ourselves and others? Where are we seeing ourselves as a victim by holding on to past hurt? Are there situations in our lives in which we are unwilling or unable to see the truth of God expressing? Is there someone in your life in whom you are challenged to see the truth of God expressing?

Are we willing to stand with our master teacher, Jesus Christ, and say “not my will, but thy will be done?” As he demonstrated, let us take time to go into the garden of our own hearts, into the secret place of the most high, and consciously connect with Divine Love at the center of our being. Surrender our thoughts of lack and limitation and invite the Mind of God to be our mind. Surrender the feelings of resentment and guilt and welcome the peace and love of God as our experience. Surrender the judgment of self and others, and embrace the Christ within ourselves and all others. In doing this, we embody the will of God, as Jesus did. We are then able to see the truth of Divine Love in and through all situations and all people.

Please join us on Sunday at 10:00 as we delve deeper into the practice and experience of “Surrendering in Love.”