Surrender December

Tragedy brings perspective - the realisation that we need to let go of the things that are meaningless and life-draining, in order to cling to the source of Life.

This year I've faced many big changes in my life. As exciting as they were, they were also scary and quite stressful. Being the passionate, energetic person I am, who loves new things and possibilities, I dove right into my new work and surroundings with dedication. Though I started out with passion, and a desire to bring honour to Jesus through what I was doing, the stress and demands of juggling all the new things made me anxious and fearful. The craziness of my life swept me up and I doggy-paddled hard with my own strength just to survive. But survival is now the full life Jesus saved me for - he saved me for a fulfilling relationship with him. I've been growing increasingly more dissatisfied with the way I am handling my life, so I've been started making steps to put ALL my life back in Jesus' hands.

Yesterday a young guy, who's path I had crossed various times back in Port Macquarie, was killed by a shark while he was surfing with some mates. His name is Zac Young. A family member of a friend, and a great friend and inspiration to many other people I love. After hearing the news and now hearing so many stories of his influence in people's lives from the great love he had from and in Jesus - the passion, dedication and deep trust he had in Jesus - it was even more evident to me that I need more Jesus in my life and less of me. I was inspired by Zac to treasure Jesus more and seek Jesus' first.

Tonight as I sat in church, the phrase 'Surrender December' rang so loudly in my ears - so here making a conscious decision to dedicate December to re-learning one precious gift of a day at a time what it is to surrender my whole life to Jesus, the one who gives LIFE in place of my so called version of 'life'.

Each day I will be opening the Bible and intentionally giving to God in prayer, and acts of trust, the areas of my life I have been trying to control or make work all by myself. Work is one of the big areas. So here on the blog I will share some of the things I'm discovering, re-learning, truths about God, resources that are helping me.

I wanted to share this with you because maybe you've been facing some anxious times, or been working hard to make life work and it's just not working [notice that menacing word 'work'!] Maybe you have found life in Jesus, but have let some things come before your relationship with Him. Maybe you turned away from Jesus or have never known Him. Wherever you're 'at' right now, the days coming towards Christmas are a great opportunity to make space for discovering or rediscovering this God Man who satisfies the soul, brings healing to the broken-hearted, can reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable, and love like no other. Perhaps this Christmas will end up being an even more meaningful and treasured time in our lives because we Surrendered December to Jesus.

If you want to join in you are very welcome to - you don't even have to tell me, but it would surely be an encouragement to have some fellow travellers or at least people cheering me on to stick with it.

So let's start - I'm starting by surrendering 'Surrender December' to Jesus, asking him to take charge of this idea and to strengthen me to stick with it each day, as well as making it such a transforming time that it will last beyond December.