Daily Lesson for October 24, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 31 verse 5:

"Into your hand I commit my spirit."

Last night I spoke at a memorial service for persons who passed away while under the care of one of the local hospice services in town. 

My sermon was titled "Release" and it was about letting go. I reflected on how much of life is about holding on tight. Even as newborn infants one of our first natural impulses is to grasp hold. Pediatricians even have a name for this; they call it the Palmer Grasp and it is said infants can hold up their own weight with it. And that is what life is about -- holding ourselves up by holding on tight.

But in every life, I said, there comes a time when we must let go; and that is the most difficult thing to do in the world because it goes against our natural will to life.

I shared with them how earlier this year I lost a friend to a long, and very grievous and debilitating disease. For years this person had struggled to hang on. It was the fight in him which had kept him alive well past expectations. But in the last months of he understood that the time had come to give up the fight and let go.  "Is it okay?" he asked me in one very memorable conversation. "Is it okay to . . . up?"

"It is okay," I said.

As God would have it, the next day I stumbled upon words from Richard Rohr which I knew were intended for my friend. I shared them with him and now I share them with you:

"If the word surrender scares you, let me tell you that surrender is not giving up, as we usually understand the term. Surrender is entering the present moment, and what is right in front of you, fully and without resistance. In that sense, surrender is almost the exact opposite of giving up. In fact, it allows you to be given to!"

Soon, my friend allowed himself to be given to his new moment; he let go and surrendered himself to death. It was the hardest thing a fighter like him could ever do; and it was the holiest thing also.

"Into your hands I commit my spirit." Words of the psalmist which Jesus prayed in the dark hours of his crucifixion. Words which remind us that there is indeed a time of surrender; and in that decisive moment we place our ultimate faith in the hands of God, who alone can still hold on, even when we let go.