I just read an awesome post by Amy Maxwell on the topic of surrender. (Read the April 6 post entitled "Note to Readers"...I highly recommend going and reading it). It made me think about the surrender that God asks of me and my family in this journey to the Army.
The surrender for me is not in going into the Army. To be honest, that excites me. I look forward to being a chaplain and wearing my country's uniform. Surrender for me is not going on deployment. Actually serving on foreign soil also holds allure for me. Where does surrender come for me? It comes in surrendering my family.
The call to discipleship is the call to surrender (Luke 9:23, "If anyone should come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.") When God called me to the chaplaincy, He underscored this surrender as it pertained to my family (Matthew ch. 10: anyone who loves father, mother, sister, brother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy to be my disciple).
Wow. This surrender He asks of me hits me where I live.
"God...these are the ones you have called me to serve, protect, and nurture. How can I throw them to the wolves by leaving them like this?"
Then as I read Amy's post mentioned above, this is what God brought to me about surrendering my family.
Imagine a little boy who is bringing home a present that he made at school for his mother. He prizes this possession. His heart treasures this gift he wants to present. As he walks home with his father, rain has been falling all day, and now the streets are flooded. As the boy and his father approach a particularly swollen part of a stream they must cross, the father asks the boy to give him the gift intended for the mother. The boy does not want to let it go. It is his to protect and deliver. Finally, through the little boy's tears, the father insists that the boy give over the prize. The boy feels like he has lost everything, but in reality he has given what is most important to him to his father who is bigger, stronger, and more able to deliver it safely over the danger.
I am not surrendering my family to be left alone. I am delivering them up to a God who loves them even more than I can. I deliver them up to a God who wants to work His perfect plan in their lives, too, to make them what He wants them to be. I deliver them up to a God who is bigger, stronger, and infinitely more able than I to deliver them safely through the torrents that await us.
About Me
- Ken
- I am about to be a former pastor. I am trading in my suits for ACU's and become a Chaplain in the Army. I will be going to chaplain basic training (CHOBC) in June 2007 and leaving my beautiful precious family for three months. I have been married for almost 17 years to my best friend, and we have three great kids: 14, 8, and 5 (boys on either end with a girl in the middle).
12 comments:
I think it's hard to surrender what we think we do well. You've done a great job taking care of your family and it's hard to give them up...even to God, who you know can do even better. It's rather like Moses, who wanted to take his flock into the Promised Land, even though heaven awaited. He'd worked hard at keeping the "stiff-necked people," even to the point of bargaining with God for their lives.
I think surrender always hits us where we live, and I also think that we always have room to surrender more. My friend, poet and songwriter Layton Howerton, wrote about surrender in his "Storyteller's Journal" in terms of letting go of a rope--and that rope is often difficult to let go of.
Ken, I know God will bless you as you learn to let go of your family. But just as your illustration so aptly showed, the Father can protect this precious gift. I pray for God's blessings and protection on all of you through this transition as well as what lies ahead for each of you.
Donna
Thanks Ken,
This is an awesome post! You're right. For me surrender isn't about serving in the Army or being deployed... it's about family.
CH Ken and Brother,
Your post grabbed my attention and struck a heart-string deep down inside. We are blessed to be called "sons of God" but this doesn't make leaving loved ones any less hard.
helo
As I have told your wife, the times when my husband was away on military leave is a time when I can actually feel God's presence in a stronger way than usual. Not that things don't go wrong while he's away because it seems like Satan is just waiting for the moment he leaves the state to mess with a major appliance or the car or the plumbing, etc...! But somehow God always provides someone or someway to deal with the issue at hand. The longest "Hubby" has ever been gone is three months but we are quite used to 6 weeks without him. Children of God are never on their own and it is really a comforting feeling (even a "Spiritual high") (if I may call it that)to feel the "peace" God brings when we at home are tempted to feel "un-protected" and on our own.
DONNA
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement. Thank you also for the feed back concerning surrender. We miss you guys
AMY
'nuff said already I guess. Thanks again for your original post. We are praying for you and your family.
CH KAY
Thank you brother. We only have 7 more Sundays...did you realize that? (I know you do!)
BETHANY
Are you talking about a rotary winged aircraft or are you giving me a salutation? (Just teasing ; ) We miss you guys.
PATTI
Hey...extended separation is extended separation. Thanks for the words of encouragement. It means a lot coming from the persepective you offer.
Hi! I stumbled across your blog while searching out fellow Chaplain/Chaplain Candidate blogs. I was hoping to make it to Jackson this summer, but I didn't commission until last month so it looks like I'll be waiting until next summer to go. It's great to find the blogs of so many people who share the same calling. If you want to check out my blog: http://prodeoetpatria.wordpress.com/.
We haven't commented in the last few days, so I thought we should kind of catch up. It seems strange when I pray for you that you are not at your former place of service to our Lord. This morning I realized that I hadn't been posting, so I will try to catch up. You may feel like a fish out of water, but you are right where God wants you. We really liked your thoughts on the little boy with his gift and how he released it to his father for safe keeping. Sometimes we grown up children forget that we are in our Father's care and we can rest in His safety. You and your family are safely wrapped in lots of prayer and placed in the hands of God. Love you all. Mom and Dad
Great article! your blod and others are really to prep my mind set. Thanks CH Ken.
ok i gotta be honest, i have absolutely NO idea what you meant in the last comment u left me ???
air craft whaty ma diller.
p.s YOU LET YOUR DAUGHTER EAT A WORM !!!!!!! (trevor told me)
and though its probably wrong to ask, what did it taste like ???
We miss all of you very much. Thanks for the suggestion to read Amy Maxwell's post on Surrender.
It is so good! I can certainly relate to the reluctance to "surrender it all". It's scary to completely let go. I'm glad to know that others feel the same reluctance.
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