When I was ten, I had my whole life planned out. I was going to go to a local college, become a teacher, and live in my hometown the rest of my life. God had other plans.
When I was nineteen, I had my whole (new) life planned out. I would attend college out of state, get an internship in my home city right before graduating, be offered a job, move home, and the rest would be history. God had other (better) plans.
At twenty-eight, I fortunately know better than to try and plan my life.
The Most Dangerous Lies
I think one of the most dangerous narratives that society tells us is that we are in charge of our life. If we want something, get it—we deserve it. If we’re tired of something, get rid of it. In other words, if it’s not serving you, then it’s not worth your time. We live in a very egocentric society which makes it easy to forget that our life is not our own—we were made to live for God.
However, living in a world where we are surrounded with worldly noise, it’s no wonder we carry the anxiety and pressure that we need to do something praise-worthy with our lives, and we need to do it now.
Social media constantly feeds us lies that tangible things are what we deserve or should obtain to be happier or appear more successful. Our friends and family are constantly telling us what kind of job we should have, how we should be raising our kids, what we should be doing in our free time, how we should be using our finances. The list of other people’s “shoulds” for other people’s lives goes on and on.
We also live in a society where certain flashy achievements get more applause and attention than others. As humans, we often thrive off of and live for praise from others. I don’t think it’s bad to enjoy positive feedback from other people, but I don’t think that should be our purpose for living and doing things.
When we live for our own image or the approval of others, we forget who is ultimately on the throne. We forget that God knit us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13), He bought us for the highest price possible (1 Corinthians 7:23), He is all-knowing, all-loving, all-good, and all-sovereign over every life that has, is, and will live on earth.
All the impressive, social media-worthy accomplishments one can obtain come from God because every good gift is from above (James 1:17), no one achieves anything solely on their own or without the presence of God’s grace and mercy. And as believers, if we acknowledge that everything is from God then I think we should be loosely holding each thing out to Him and asking, “How would You like me to use what You lent me for Your glory?”
Thy Will Be Done
Over the last few years, I’ve felt very convicted on this subject of surrender. I love to make plans and be organized and know as much about what’s going to happen before it does. But I’ve learned the hard way a few times that I don’t know what’s best, and I don’t have control—a hard lesson worth every ounce of pain that it came with. My favorite line in the Lord’s prayer has always been “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10), and for a while I wasn’t sure why. Then the Holy Spirit started slowly revealing to me that this was how I was to live my life.
I had to stop worrying about living a life that pleased my parents, made me look impressive to friends on social media, and start living in a way that reflected what I said I believed—that God (not I) knows best, that my life and everything He has given me belongs to Him (not to me to use for my own personal gain and interest), and that God is good and sovereign (therefore I am not in control no matter how hard I try and have no reason to fear). When life feels “wrong” or out of control, it’s easy to panic and want to try desperate measures to “fix” what I think is broken, but I’ve learned in my anxiety to surrender these moments and things to God.
Jesus told His disciples in Luke 9:23 that whoever wants to be his disciple must deny himself and take up his cross daily. To me this means starting every day with open hands and giving it to God. It means living for the sole purpose of God being glorified with whatever the day brings. I don’t believe living a life surrendered to Christ means making no plans, but I do think it means involving God in every detail of your hopes, dreams, and plans—keeping your hands open to acknowledge “God this is what I’m thinking about, but may Your will be done in this.” Sometimes it even means acknowledging “Lord, as much as I want this, I want You more.”
Living a surrendered life to Christ reminds you that you are meant to live differently in this world (Romans 12:2) and it probably won’t come with much encouragement or praise from others either. It may come across boring and slow compared to the flashy, fast-paced, instant gratification world we live in, and you may also often feel questioned, left out or out of place. But I’ve found that there’s an unexplainable peace that comes with surrendering to and living for Jesus every day. We were created for God and to live with eternity in mind. This life is so short. We should use every opportunity to choose to serve Him with everything He’s given us.
Suddenly it won’t matter if your life looks different than others. Because when you surrender your purpose and all the pieces of your life to God, you are fulfilling your greatest purpose and plan He has for you. Jesus, the only one who can measure success says you are living a successful life. When you surrender everything to Him, you’ll receive Jesus (the greatest gift of all), and your life on earth will be blessed (Jeremiah 17:7–8).
—Written by Hannah Kuhn. Used by permission from the author.
