“Maybe this is where God is leading us right now, in this moment, not to some grand gesture of submission… but to a small surrender”. This is what I said to my three friends who had gathered together with me to write music.
We had come together for a writing retreat and found ourselves grouped together for the next couple of hours in hopes of uncovering what we felt like God had for us to write. We didn’t really know each other very well so we took the time to grow in relationship before penning any lyrics or writing any melodies. Our conversation settled on sharing our “coming to faith” stories. I shared my story, as did my friends Nicole and Tyvon. Last to speak was my friend Yoo Soo. He shared that he wasn’t quite sure he even had a “coming to faith” story… he wasn’t sure he’d even call himself a Christian yet.
I remember my sense of surprise. Not at where he was at in his faith journey. But that he would commit several days to sitting in rooms with people to write songs about Jesus. I asked my friend Yoo Soo what would make him make such a decision. His response was simple, and yet incredibly profound.
“I feel like this is the next thing that God invited me into, and so I said yes.”
I remember saying “That’s it… that right there is what I sense we need to write. Maybe this is where God is leading us right now, in this moment, not to some grand gesture of submission… but to a small surrender”.
Too often the idea of surrender in the context of faith is regarded as a single moment of complete submission, casting everything aside, laying down anything and everything. I’ve learned over the years that more often than not, our grand story of following Jesus has been made up of dozens or even hundreds of acts of small surrender.
Perhaps God is inviting you into a grand gesture of surrender.
Perhaps he is simply asking for your attention.
The beauty of the act of surrender is that no matter where you find yourself on your faith journey, there is always a next small step that God is calling you into. While I may not personally know what that is for you, what I do know is that he will take your little step of faith and make it greater.
What small surrender is God asking you for today?
By Jeremy Lopez