Freedom In Surrender: Life Under The King

FREEDOM SATURDAY

I pleaded with my husband, “Just tell me what to do.” The list of things I wanted to do was so long I didn’t know where to begin. It was Saturday.

For our family, this is the one day a week that my husband and I both have off. Therefore, a lot of pressure gets placed on Saturdays. Correction, I place a lot of pressure on Saturdays.

All week it seems as though my days are run by the needs of others, the schedules of others and the needs of the house. All week long, I look forward to Saturday, the day I get to decide what we do. The day of flexibility and freedom.

What picture comes to mind when you think of freedom? 

I picture a young women heading west on Route 66, top down, without a care in the world. She has little responsibility, no agenda and her heart is blooming with optimism for the adventure that awaits her.

I typically associate freedom with the ability to do what I want to do. My guess is that our innate human yearning for freedom, boils down to the desire to be King (or Queen) over our own lives. We don’t want any hindrances, restrictions, or strings, just the ability to do as we please. Total freedom. 

Yet here I was, on my beloved Freedom Saturday, so paralyzed with indecision, I begged my husband to take charge.

Can you remember reading a fairy tale about a character who through some means acquired the ability to wish for whatever they desired? How did that story end? Most of the time that story ends with regret. They’ve lost everything that was actually meaningful in life and end up worse off than they were to begin with. 

No matter how much we may think we want total control of life, we can’t handle that kind of power. And we weren’t created for it either. This Saturday was a reminder of that.

SO WHAT KIND OF FREEDOM WERE WE CREATED FOR? 

I recently took a deep look into the book of Ecclesiastes and found it to be incredibly eye opening regarding freedom.

If you’re not familiar with the book or it’s been awhile, most scholars believe it was written by King Solomon. Regardless, the writer refers to himself as “the Teacher” and as such, he seeks to find wisdom and bestow it on his reader. After much analyzation and contemplation, he concludes that life is “meaningless.” He repeatedly says, “meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.” Furthermore, he calls the majority of mans toil and striving, “a chasing after the wind.” 

The word that is most often translated as “meaningless” or in other translations “futile,” is the Hebrew word hebel. Hebel is more literally translated as “vapor” or “breathe.”

In other words, the Teacher says that much of life is like a vapor or breathe. Not only is it short lived and fragile, it is not as malleable as it appears to be.  If most of life is as he calls it, a vapor or breathe, then it makes a lot more sense why he would say that trying to control or preserve it is like, “a chasing after the wind.”

Are you ready to see how this ties into freedom?

Once we have sobered up to see the majority of life as something that cannot be controlled, it actually frees us up to delight in those things that God has intended us to enjoy: our families, our work, our relationships, the sunrise, warm baths, evenings spent with friends and most of all, God himself. 

I began to see that my desire to rule over my own life wasn’t actually my deepest desire. What I actually longed for, and what I believe we are all created for, is not to be King over our own life, but rather, live under the rule of a perfect King. 

Thankfully, we have a perfect King. A King we can trust. A King who rules justly. A King who always has our best in mind. A King who loves us more than we love our selves. A King who loves our children more than we do. A King with no limits. A perfect, sovereign King. 

Jesus invites us to live under the rule of this King, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever looses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25 NIV) We will not find true life in trying to control it. We will however, find it when we surrender to Him. Jesus compels us further, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.” (Matthew 6:25 NIV) We can fully trust our lives and every aspect of them to our perfect and sovereign King. 

Contrary to the world’s message and our fleshly desire, freedom is not found in control, rather, freedom is found in a life surrendered to Jesus.

I’ve come to realize that the young women driving down Route 66 is not too different than me. I may not be physically driving a car. My driving looks more like doing dishes, diapers and laundry. My hair may not be blowing in the wind, but it is often sprawled along the back of the couch while I read Hop on Pop for the third time that day. I may not have the optimism of my youth due to naivety, but I have a truer optimism, one that is grounded in the knowledge of a perfect and sovereign King who rules heaven, earth and sea and who loves me deeply. A King who truly does have everything under control. 

A CLOSING PRAYER OF SURRENDER

“Jesus, I recognize my desire to rule my own life, but I know this is not possible and I was not created to bear the weight of that kind of control. 

Therefore, I find great relief and comfort in knowing I can let go of trying to control life and set all my hopes, dreams, worries and fears into your perfect and sovereign hands. Thank you for being my King.”