THE POWER OF SURRENDER

Last week we discussed the Power of Letting Go, which is similar to surrender. However, there’s a difference; letting go is about being free of the suffering we create with our desires, attachments, and need of control. It’s about healing our emotional wounds. We cannot change our past, but we can heal it; and that’s the first step on the journey toward surrender.

Letting go is the waiting room of the sanctuary, but surrender is the sanctuary itself. It is the holy place consecrated to the communion of our spirit with the divine. Surrender is not a task we can achieve through the power of our mind or will, it comes by divine grace when we are ready, when we give up our personal will to the divine will; when we give up our ego and become our essence.

What is our essence? According to the dictionary essence is the group of properties of something without which, it wouldn’t exist. A practical example from nature would be water. The essence of water is its molecular structure, if one of them would change, then, it wouldn’t’t be water anymore. Applying the same concept to a human being its self-consciousness, its true self, its soul, is its essence.

If the soul is our essence, and our ego is the mind’s identity that we have constructed based on all beliefs about our personality, talents, and abilities, we can see clearly why we need to give up our ego and become our essence to receive the gift of surrender. The ego is the false self, the illusion, the manipulative, defensive, judgmental, prideful part of us. The Spirit is the spark of the divine that burns within our heart, the potential of our divinity, our consciousness, the light that guide us throughout the darkness. Ego and Spirit have different paths.

From my personal experience I see surrender as a miracle that changes our perception about who we are, and why we are here. It can also open our understanding to discover our spiritual calling. I am sharing herewith the experience of my moment of surrendering, in hope of helping someone that could be going through deep suffering.

About eight years ago I went through desperate moments of darkness caused by my wrong perception of life, and my need to controlling my adult children. I had been asking God for years to make of me a better person. The divine spirit listened to my plea and the answer came; but not in the way I expected. I lost control of my children, my health, everything. I wasn’t ready for that, so I became seriously depressed. Spiritual transformation is a mystery difficult to understand.

I felt like a victim, I blamed God, fate, my children; which only made things worst. I started looking for external solutions. I tried psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, all types of therapies with no positive answer. Ultimately, my emotional pain literally brought me to my knees, and in tears I asked God why he would make me endure such pain. At the same time, I recognized that I was absolutely powerless. I accepted that I didn’t know anything, and I understood that truth was beyond my thoughts and beliefs and there was no way that I could figure it out how to alleviate my pain. I, on my own, was incapable of changing.

At that moment I delivered my pain to the Divine Spirit inside my heart in total acceptance of his will asking only to sustain me and give me the courage to go through whatever would come. I surrendered my will to Thy will. That was my moment of grace. The answer came through an immediate feeling of peace that words could not describe. I had a clear vision of how I had created my suffering by not accepting the things I could not change. My lack of unconditional love, my ego, my lack of humility and resistance to open my heart had wounded me causing my physical and emotional hurt. That was my miracle, I was healed!

Surrender is not a permanent gift; we have to work for it. Occasionally we have a glimpse of our truth, but then we are dragged back by our conditioned mind. The ego is very manipulative, and it will find ways to recreate our doubts and fear. Our journey has plenty of challenges that threaten our spiritual alignment, that is why I recommend my readers the practice of mindfulness every single day. Surrender is one of the powers provided by Mindful meditation.

If you would like to help others by sharing a personal experience that has changed who you are, email  me to gladys.gonzalez@ocipeace.org   If you don’t want to give your real name you don’t have to.

Don’t miss our blog on Friday about The Power of Unconditional Love. Visit www.ocipeace.org