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A Sagely Word
The sense of being led by an unseen hand which takes mine while another hand reaches ahead and prepares the way, grows upon me daily. I do not need to strain at all to find opportunity. Perhaps a man who has been an ordained minister since 1914 ought to be ashamed to confess that he never felt the joy of complete hourly, minute by minute—now what shall I call it?—more than surrender.
*Frank Laubach, excerpt dated March 1, 1930, from a diary that became the book Letters by a Modern Mystic.
Commentary
Dr. Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) was a Christian Evangelical missionary and mystic known as "The Apostle to the Illiterates." While working at a remote location in the Philippines, in 1935 he developed the "Each One Teach One" literacy program, which has been used to teach many millions of people to read in their own language. He was deeply concerned about poverty, injustice and illiteracy, and Laubach considered them a barrier to peace in the world. In 1955 he founded Laubach Literacy and Mission Fund, now called Laubach Literacy. During his latter years Laubach traveled all over the world speaking on topics of literacy and world peace.
Laubach sought to live Practicing the Presence of God. Central to Laubach living mindfully was “surrender.” This surrender into God is the surrender into the processes of Tao, as taught in Taoism and the classic Tao Te Ching.
This surrendering is called by St. Paul walking in, or by, the Spirit. The spiritual man or woman is the man or woman being carried by the Great Flow of Love. The Spirit is the immanence of the Logos, here and now. And whether we speak of this Something Other as personal, like God, or impersonal, like Mind, we refer to the One who is the Source and Manifestation of the laws that govern nature, including our relationship to nature.
Laubach, then, as many other Christians, shows us a way of living in the right-now. This is not something we gain through strenuous effort, rather, we enjoy this through surrender. We sink into the timeless moment, the same way a piece of iron will sink to the bottom of a stream. We are carried along by the Wind, like a kite.
I have felt much the words of Laubach, over the last months. After many months of struggle and some painful loss, there is a strong sense, now, of “an unseen hand which takes mine while another hand reaches ahead and prepares the way.” Like this Sunday morning. I got up and looked over the morning message. Before I left home, I lost my notes. I looked everywhere I had been. I just walked out without them, even enthused to stand up without them, to share with the congregation. I did. I knew, beyond knowing, that the message would come forth. I was in the moment. I spoke in the moment. No problem, no fear, joy. Surrender. Very natural. There is nothing unnatural about this. And this is simply amplification of how unnatural and strained we often live our lives. And this is amplification of how we could live more, if we surrendered to the Pervasive Energy.
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I write the same way. I never plan what I will write. I read. I have an idea. Sometimes, I sit down and seek an idea. Sometimes, my idea changes after I sit down and start writing. Surrender.
See, one does not create or sustain the surrender. Rather, one is surrendered by the One. The only thing we can do is surrender. This surrender is spontaneous. Often, one is well into the surrender without knowing it, even though surrender may be initiated, partly, through a conscious decision on our part. That decision itself, however, is already part of the surrender arising out of Spirit. He wakes up realizing something has changed, and his whole life is being lived from a different dimension. Then, it is as though he has been pushing a large boulder up a hill and, now, there is only this sense of being taken along by a Mystery that is its own momentum.
This is made possible by an unselfconscious process of spiritual nurturance. As one becomes more attuned to Spirit, Spirit flows through more, or Spirit takes more unselfconscious control of the human faculties. One feels less fear and more being buoyed up and carried along by another Force, another Fact.
Indeed, two words are traits of this state: faith and fearlessness. Faith does not mean less certainty, rather, this faith means a certainty underlying the uncertainty. No longer does the uncertainty carry as much weight. Indeed, he can rejoice in his uncertainty. Then, fearlessness does not mean there is no fear, though there is much less fear and the fear is not as oriented to self-protection. Somehow, he knows he is taken into Something so Immense that he has been surrendered and his life is no longer his life. This experience, at first, is so different from his usual life of fearfulness, control, and calculation that he has to adjust to this new way. In time, to accept that such a life is possible becomes more something he knows and trusts, very naturally, surrendering into the process of being surrendered.
Spiritual Exercises
1. What thoughts and emotions do you associate with surrender?
2. What are your thoughts and feelings about the quote from Laubach?
3. Do your daily prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading, …
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