Jesus in Gethsemane
always knew where this life-in-God was taking him. But his Gethsemane night of agony reveals his deep confusion and misgiving: he didn’t think it would come to this. He falls on his face and prays mightily for God to find another way, sweating blood. Nevertheless, he prays, “not my will but yours be done.”
Jesus can finally surrender to the God he called “abba” or papa, because he trusts that God is in fact Love. He can endure anything—even the loss of his life—if Love will hold him every step of the way. If Love calls him to walk this path, then it has to be right, even good. He knows—Love never fails, never ends.
In the spiritual realm, it’s a truism that we are supposed to “surrender our lives to God.” It sounds so simple, so good. Who wouldn’t? But when God’s chosen path turns into dark passages, we can only keep saying Yes if we know Love is walking with us, will never leave us or forsake us. Many of us struggle to make this surrender because the God we were introduced to—often in early childhood—was not very loving. He was demanding. He loved those who behaved well, and punished those who didn’t.
We have to say—that God is hard to surrender to.
Franciscan teacher and writer Richard Rohr offers the hope we need:
“People who know God well—mystics, hermits, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator. God is never found as an abusive father or a tyrannical mother; God is always a lover greater than we dared hope for. How different from the ‘account manager’ most people seem to worship. God is the lover who receives and forgives everything.“
Perhaps the first surrender we must make is putting aside that old image of God, the accounts manager. Trust today what the mystics and saints of all the ages keep telling us: God really is Love. You can believe that, stake your life on that. Even when it’s your turn to walk in the Valley of the Shadow, you can keep saying Yes to Love.
COMPANIONS ON THE WAY
Introduction
Stories of Turning
Week One
Stories of Wild Places
Week Two
Stories of Dogged Faith
Week Three
Stories of Mercy & Forgiveness
Week Four
Stories of Simplicity & Joy
Week Five
Stories of Prayer & Surrender
Week Six
Stories of Transforming Love
Thanks, David. Sometimes I think we have to get rid of the false God we fear to take the hand of the one who loves us.
Thanks for that image–of reaching out to take the hand of Love. As I envisioned that, I felt like a very small child, looking up at that hand, wondering if I can trust it, looking into the eyes of the One offering it, and then extending my own hand until it is held, I am held. So thank you for spontaneously creating in me that guided meditation.
Thank you, David, for taking us on the Lenten journey.
This morning, on my way back from the gym, I was listening to Ubi Caritas, the Durufle. So, your post today was an echo.
Old song—new choir, new rendition. But the old, familiar song: Where charity and love live, that’s where God lives.
We sing that on Maundy Thursday. It’s so good because it’s just universal, period. We don’t have to debate whether God is really present here or here or maybe there. Just–wherever love is, there God is.
David, I loved this post. It is so hard to turn from the notion that God is “keeping score” instead of sending love in whatever situation we have got ourselves in. YOur beautiful reminder was just what I needed.
Thanks, Martha—glad it hit the spot for you.
Thank you, David. Noting that religious practices often focus on the “account manager“ version of God instead of Mercy, I recognize that this is interpretive and cultural, but it also comes from my subconscious. I am an account manager of my own wrongs and have trouble fully accepting God‘s grace and mercy.
For me, this is another aspect/ step of surrender.
Thanks for your honesty, Ann—many of us are right there with you. Our daily practice is how we gradually lay aside whatever is not Love. I don’t know about tomorrow, but we can trust Love today.