Sweet Surrender In a Difficult World

It was about 15 years ago, and my late wife, Debbie, came to me with a very anxious look on her face.

“I can’t find my glasses. Will you please help me,” she asked.

I was glad to assist her and we looked high and low all throughout the house, but we couldn’t find them. “Are you certain that they are in the house?” I questioned her.

“Yes, I remember wearing them as I was reading about an hour or so ago,” she responded.

Once again, we searched every place we could think of, but we couldn’t find her glasses. Finally, Debbie said, “I surrender, and I have faith that they will show up sometime.”

I was touched by Debbie’s act of surrender, and I wondered if I could do the same if the shoe were on the other foot (if you don’t mind mixed metaphors). About five minutes later, our then eight year-old daughter, Robin, came up to Debbie and asked for a snack. “Are pretzels and milk okay?” Debbie asked.

When little Robin said “Yes,” I volunteered to go to the pantry and fetch some pretzels. I did this, and as I reached into the pretzel bag to get Robin‘s snack you will never guess what I found...That’s right — my late wife’s glasses were somehow inside of the pretzel bag!

We never did figure out the how and why of Debbie’s glasses winding up in the pretzel bag, but we were both struck by the power of surrendering. For me, the art of surrender took on a spiritual dimension that day.

But recently, I learned about a deeper story of spiritual surrender that involved Rev. Faith Moran, who was one of the two cofounders of Spiritual Life Center. I would be willing to bet that many of you know this story, but please remember I am still the relatively new kid on the block.

When I started serving as Spiritual Life Center’s Senior Minister last August, I quickly learned that SLC has a very deep and close relationship with a dear woman by the name of Sister Hansa. She is with a beautiful spiritual group called the Brahma Kumaris.

Founded in India, the Brahma Kumaris are dedicated to building a worldwide “soul-consciousness” that is truly based on peace, compassion, and spiritual development. They are teachers and practitioners of Raja yoga, which traditionally has been known as 'the royal path of yoga.' With Raja yoga one learns to guide one’s thoughts away from lower temptations and blockages. Instead one centers on the noble virtues that almost all of the world’s great spiritual paths recommend.

So we were in the middle of planning SLC’s new Unity & World Religions Series. We were able to arrange for Yogi Yogesh Sharda to come and speak to us on the afternoon of July 5th. Yogi Sharda is the director of the Brahma Kumaris in Turkey. He is also an expert on the fascinating intersection between the latest developments in neuroscience and ancient practices of meditation.

I was talking with Sister Hansa’s assistant to finalize the Yogi’s visit, and she asked me, “Do you know the story behind the dear relationship of SLC and us?” I admitted to her that I did not. All I knew was that it was deep, warm, and long-standing.

Well, she told me the story, and it had so much to do with surrender. Rev. Faith had received her diagnosis related to a serious form of brain cancer. I personally have never received such a diagnosis, but I can only imagine what it must be like to go through this. The closest I have come to this situation is the cancer diagnosis and death of Debbie.

It was at this point that Faith went to a talk given by Sister Hansa, and Faith was deeply moved. What followed was Faith going to India to be with the Brahma Kumaris. Sister Hansa’s assistant told me it was there that Faith developed a strong sense of surrender and acceptance for what she was going through.

I believe that surrender — when it is truly aligned with Spirit — can be one of the most beautiful, and paradoxically powerful, acts and forms of spirituality. I am thinking of Jesus in the garden before his arrest and praying, “Thy will, not mine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

Fortunately, most of us have the opportunity to practice sweet surrender on much smaller things — like a lost pair of glasses. By practicing this way, our spiritual abilities and faith can grow and strengthen. Then, if there comes a time where we directly face that diagnosis or other very serious situation, we will be amazed that we will receive the spiritual power that will see us through.

Recently, somebody came to me after receiving a very serious medical diagnosis, and this person said to me, “I don’t know how people who don’t have a spiritual foundation get through something like this.”

Fortunately, this person does have a beautiful spiritual foundation. Related to all this are my favorite lines from Amazing Grace. They are:

“'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.”

Many blessings,

Rev. Rick