Surrender Brings Freedom

Being on a hiking trail is one of my favorite places to be. It’s a place in the middle of God’s country and a place where I can breathe like no other place. It’s something that my husband and I have enjoyed doing together and it’s where we can talk and process life together.

A few weeks ago we went to southern Indiana with some friends to explore a new-to-us trail that I had discovered online. The Knobstone Trail. The reviews were good but I also saw that it may be a little on the challenging side. I was ok with this because I don’t mind a good challenge on a trail.

On our drive to the trail I had the thought “we don’t know what we’re in for” go through my mind. I assumed that it was just because none of us had ever been on this trail before so of course we didn’t know what we were in for, right?

The back roads going to the trailhead were very up and down with lots of curves. Like most trails the trailhead was in the middle of nowhere. This one was smaller than most I had been to but I was up for the adventure of exploring a new trail. Well, we really didn’t know what we were in for.

This trail was tough.

The climbs were steep.

It was rough.

The declines were not easy.

It was not kind to us.

It showed no grace or mercy.

The rocks and mud were messy and slippery.

To top it off I had just been trying to get over a sinus infection plus an ear infection for a week and I was not feeling 100% physically. I was tired and hadn’t been able to workout or train for a week prior to the hike.

God and I had a few conversations during the hike. One was a conversation about surrender. This was at a point (which was quite early in the hike) when it became mental. The physical part of the journey was hard but when it gets to the point when you’re not sure that you can keep going, it becomes mental. I had to mentally decide that I was going to be able to do this. I had to will my body to do it.

Our goal for the hike was to do 21 miles in 3 days. On the first day we did 6 grueling miles. All four of us were spent by the end of the day. Our goal was to finish the hike the next day and get out of there. Our hope was that the next day would be easier and the trail would be kinder to us.

It was not.

We all reached a point of surrender four miles in. We couldn’t go anymore. There was no need to go further. Why keep killing ourselves when we didn’t need to? We had come up on a main road and sat down to discuss what we were going to do from there. We all agreed on a plan to get out of there with grace. The men would go get the car while us ladies stayed in the woods with the gear and wait for them to come back to get us. We expected it to be a 4-5 hour ordeal to get out but by the grace of God the guys got a ride to the car and were back with us ladies in an hour.

While the guys were gone, us ladies rested by the gentle stream close by and put our tired feet in until they were numb. The therapy was wonderful.

After we left the trail, the rain came and poured all night and all the next day. I know that God looked at us and made a decision to get us out of the woods before the rain came. If he had not done that, we would have been absolutely miserable and beaten down by the rain. The trail was already wet and in some spots muddy from the rain over the weekend so to have more rain would have been devastating to the hike. I will be forever grateful for God’s grace and mercy on us that afternoon when he chose to help us get out.

Sometimes life gets so hard that we simply need to surrender to His will. I have had to do that many times in my lifetime. Difficult to do but it’s worth it. The journey that we call life can be too much for us to do on our own.

Surrendering it all to God is wise.

A few things that I’ve had to surrender in my life are …

• Control over situations that I am not meant to control. 
• Letting go of parenting my children like I used to.
• Not needing to be right most of the time.
• Relationships that have been difficult to maintain.
• Expectations of what I think my life should look like.

Surrendering areas of our lives that are too much for us to carry is beneficial to us and those around us. Every time I have chosen to give up something that God asks me to, I don’t lose something; I gain something. I gain relief, joy, rest, satisfaction, and the ability to move forward. Every time I let go there is something that comes back to me that blesses me. God honors our choice to surrender to him and his plan.

It’s ok to let yourself breathe.

Wave the white flag. 
Surrender.
Let go of whatever is keeping you from what God has for you.

It is in the surrender that we become free.