“The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. 'They won't let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner.'
'What are you complaining about?' said God. 'They won't let Me in either.”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
18The Lord is close to the brokenheartedPSALM 34-35
22The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”23As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”
JOURNAL
One of the things God has been slowly opening my eyes to is why surrendering outcomes changes so much. For years I thought the greatest benefit was freedom from anxiety. While that is certainly true, I am beginning to see something even deeper.
For much of my life, I avoided work that required me to be alone. Homework. Sales calls. Quiet projects. Anything that depended solely on me seemed incredibly difficult to begin. Yet put me on a team, in a classroom, on a football field, or alongside other people, and I came alive. I thrived in shared purpose but often shrank from isolation.
Looking back, I realize that when I was alone, I believed I really was alone. Every task depended on my ability, my motivation, my wisdom, and ultimately my success. The burden rested entirely on me. No wonder I avoided so many of those moments. They weren't just difficult tasks. They felt like isolated battles where I had to prove myself. But surrendering outcomes has begun to expose that lie.
When I lay down my agenda each morning and welcome God's Spirit to lead me, I am no longer approaching the day by myself. The Spirit of God actually dwells within me. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is present in the ordinary moments of my life. A phone call is no longer just my phone call. Writing a lesson plan is no longer just my creativity. Preparing for practice, answering an email, studying Scripture, or tackling a difficult project are no longer isolated efforts. They become moments of partnership with God Himself.
I wish I could say I live this way consistently, but I don't. My old patterns have a way of quietly sneaking back in. I catch myself picking outcomes back up, relying on my own strength, and feeling the familiar weight of isolation again. But every time I surrender those outcomes once more and consciously welcome God's Spirit into the work before me, something changes. The burden becomes lighter. The work becomes less about proving myself and more about participating with Him.
Perhaps this is what Paul understood so deeply. Whether he was preaching before crowds, making tents, or standing alone in chains, he was never actually alone. His confidence wasn't found in favorable circumstances or successful outcomes but in the presence of Christ within him.
That may be the greatest freedom obedience offers. It isn't simply that I stop chasing outcomes. It is that I stop living as though everything depends on me. I am no longer working in isolation. I am walking with the God who promised never to leave me, whose Spirit lives within me, transforming even the quietest and most ordinary tasks into opportunities for fellowship.
That is what makes surrender so beautiful. It doesn't merely change what I am doing. It changes who I believe is doing it with me.
4But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.b 6Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,c Father.” 7So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
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