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Okay. And then go.

Surrender is fruitful, timely, possible, overflowing. Let God surprise you.

Welcome back to Best Land Ever. This year, the team designed Best Land Ever in three segments. Yesterday, you consecrated yourself to the Holy Trinity. And for the next six days, we're going to talk about surrender. Yesterday, you surrendered your whole self, your whole life to God. In the next six days, we're going to talk about how do we live out that surrender? And then on Palm Sunday, we'll begin the Holy Week Retreat. And I have to tell you, this is not to be missed. I think this is the first time the Holy Week retreat has been done by someone other than myself, and it is incredibly powerful.

So I'm looking forward to experiencing that, and I'm excited for you to experience that also. Our conversation for the next six days is going to be based on the surrender project, which is made up of the surrender assessment, and then the two books, The Way of Surrender and Seasons of Surrender. And today I'm going to talk to you from The Way of Surrender. And the first thing I want to do is I want to put surrender in the context of our lives, in the context of our relationship with God, so that we can understand where does it belong and what is it exactly calling us to.

On the back cover of the book, it says, "Surrender is essential to the Christian life." All spiritual development depends upon surrender. It is this foundation upon which every virtue, every prayer, and every loving act rests. So all spiritual development depends upon surrender. We can only grow spiritually to the extent that we are willing to surrender to God. And sometimes we surrender to God. And I remember a story I used to tell when I first started traveling. And I remember sitting in my parish church at home in Australia and saying to God, "I'm a 100% yours, Lord. Whatever you want, I will do whatever you want. Just let me know. Everything's yours."

And then I went home, and, literally, I walked in the door and my brother, one of my brothers, asked me could he borrow my golf clubs. And I had a beautiful set of golf clubs. I loved playing golf as a teenager. And this brother of mine, he could not play golf. He was a hacker. And I got a cringe as soon as he asked to borrow them because I knew these golf clubs were not in safe hands. And then at the same time, I'm remembering, "Okay, I've just told God everything's His." And so I had this predicament almost instantly, right?

And I think that we do experience tests of that resolve of that consecration of that surrender. And so that's what we want to talk about surrender here for a few days. Inside the front cover, it says, "It's time to trade our anxiety for the gift of peace." And of course, we live in a culture that has so much anxiety. We have so much anxiety about so many things. It goes on to say, "In God we trust. This phrase is printed on all United States paper currency and and engraved on our coins. Most of the time, we overlook it, but it proposes a piercing question: do we really trust in God? Congress declared these four words our national motto in 1956, but are they words we live by? Is it even a motto we aspire to live by? Most Christians have a strained relationship with the whole concept of trusting God. This is our resistance to surrender. Surrendering to God is central to the Christian life, and yet it is conspicuously absent from the message most Christians hear at church each week. More than 90% have never heard a comprehensive message on the topic of surrender. And yet, it is essential to the Christian life. Think about that for a moment. Surrender is essential to an authentic Christian life, but we don't talk about it.

Surrender is essential to an authentic Christian life, but we don't talk about it. Staggering, isn't it? Why? Because we love to be in control. And that desire for control is divisive. And so how can we have unity in our marriages, in our families, in our workplaces, in our country, in our world, if we're not willing to surrender to the God who created us and all of these things. The assessment, The Surrender Assessment, is so brilliant. I wish I'd written it myself. I just, over and over, I reflect on it. I'm like, that is brilliant. The assessment is broken into 10 sections. And this book is based on the assessment. It has one short chapter for each point in the assessment, so that you take the assessment, and then you get your report, and you realize, okay, I need to grow in this area, I need to grow in this area. Then you can come to the book and you can go straight to that area and learn how to grow in that specific area.

I want to share with you just the 10 titles of the sections because I think in and of themselves, they're like a meditation. They're an invitation. And I think they're also a great challenge. So part one, trusting God completely. Think about that, right? Trusting God completely. Do we trust God? Will we say yes? How much? Trusting God completely. And maybe come around it the other way and think, okay, in what ways don't I trust God? In what areas of my life don't I trust God? In what areas of my life am I overextending myself? Because I don't trust that God is going to help me take care of whatever that is. Part two, letting go of control. Wow. We just all struggle with that, don't we? Letting go of control, allowing God to move things, move people, direct things, direct people according to his plans, his dream, his desire. Part three, obedience to God's will. When we have a decision to make, is it even on our radar? We have a decision to make, which is, oh, I feel like doing this. Or even very intellectually and strategically thinking, okay, if I do this, I do this, I do this, I do this. And we can do that, and we can make a decision very, very intentionally, and at the same time, completely ignore the will of God. So when we have a decision to make, are we pausing and saying, "Okay, what what is the will of God in all of this?" Number 4, cultivating a servant's heart. At the heart of surrender is humility. You cannot— we cannot—it's impossible—surrender to God out of our pride. We can't surrender to God out of our arrogance. We can't surrender to God out of our self-importance. We can't surrender to God out of our grandiosity. We can only surrender to God out of our humility. And finding that humility is essential to surrendering to God. And of course, part of that is cultivating a servant's heart. Number 5 is finding peace in God's provision. We yearn for peace. May be aware of it, may not be aware of it, but we yearn for peace. We yearn for peace in our hearts, in our marriages, in our families, in our community, in our country, in our world. We yearn for peace.

Part 6, dying to self. You can't surrender to God without dying to self. It's impossible. We see Jesus on the cross surrendering completely, laying everything down, dying for you and me. And Christians have always been called to die to self. We've always been called to do things large and small, to demonstrate that we are united with Jesus on the cross and his sufferings. Part 7, renewing the mind. We got head trash, right? Sometimes we got to take out the trash. And what is clear as you make this journey of surrender is that one of the things that is going to be a major obstacle to you renewing that surrendering completely to God, is your own thoughts. We've got crazy thoughts in our heads, we got dangerous neighbourhoods in our minds, and we wander in these dangerous neighbourhoods. And then we start thinking these thoughts, and they become an obstacle between us and God. They become an obstacle between us and surrender.

Part 8, living by faith, not by sight. Living by faith. We say we're people of faith. We say we're trying to live the faith, but do we live by faith? You think about what is it to live the faith? You ask people, "What is it to live the faith?" They'd probably say things like, "We go to church on Sunday and follow the teachings of the church and this and that." But living by faith, that's something deeper. There's something more to that. Living by faith means walking with God.

Part 9, enduring through trials, you will have trials. It's inevitable. They will be unexpected, but they are inevitable. And will we be able to maintain our surrender in those trials? The answer is only if we have a plan, only if we're taught how to maintain our surrender through those trials. And then part 10, living with eternal perspective. Do we live with heaven in mind? Do we live with heaven in mind? Are we mindful of heaven in the moments of our day? I could not be more excited about this opportunity to talk to you about surrender. Obviously, I didn't write the book. I didn't write the assessment. When I first read the assessment a couple of years ago now, in that moment, I believed that it was an extraordinary thing. In that moment, I believed that every Christian in America should take this assessment and that we need it. It will transform our spiritual lives in ways that, I mean, I've been trying to commit myself to this very intensely now for 37, 38 years. And I've never seen something like this. It's very powerful. So, if you haven't taken it yet, I really encourage you to take the assessment. Click the button below. Take the assessment today. Don't put it off. You need 10 minutes. Give yourself 10 minutes when you've got 10 minutes. You need 10 minutes. Click the button below. Take the assessment. Have a great day. And remember, Be Bold, be Catholic.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

God of miracles, wonders, and grace.

I thank you for all the good you have done in my life.

For the miracles I recognize.

And the many graces I so often overlook.

I open my heart completely to you today.

Inviting you to completely inhabit my soul. So that through me—

Others may encounter your love.

Your mercy.

Your compassion.

Your kindness.

And your staggering generosity. Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Don't let the world steal your wonder.

See you tomorrow.

See you tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Have a great day!