Recently I listened to a talk given by Richard Rohr. It really blew me away. Rohr looks at life as though he could visibly see the spiritual world. And, the insights he offers are quite challenging.
One of his challenging concepts is the idea of perfection. We always want to climb higher, he says. Yet, if we read the gospels, Jesus never said anything about climbing higher. He spoke of becoming little, of being humble, of carrying the cross. Rohr says we should take note of this, that what Jesus is asking is not for us to accomplish some great work, but to have the faith and trust for a total surrender. Surrender is not a "giving up" but an active "letting go" of those things that bind us, tie us down, keep us from following The Way.
Surrender requires vision, honesty, truth and faith. It consist in refusal to settle for the trinkets life offers us and believe that there is more, if we just continue to stretch ourselves. Surrender goes hand in hand with the unsettled soul that cannot find rest in the here and now. Surrender lets go of the hurts or slights, refusing to clutch that which can embitter. Surrender is like casting off from the dock, knowing God is the wind in our sail, and our job is to use the rudder to find the path destined for us.
All of this is very abstract. Yet, we start with what is in our mind, and work to get our spirit to follow.
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