Why Striving Doesn’t Work—and How Surrender Creates Real Change

Nothing changes until nothing changes.
I guess you’ve heard this before and are well aware that everything is constantly changing, right? Sometimes faster than we’re able to keep up with, sometimes suddenly, and sometimes—maybe most often?—not to our own liking.

On an appearance level it’s true, they are, no new code being cracked over here— so if we want the reflection to look different, we have to first come into alignment with what is, with the One who is never changing: God. We have to feel Him where we now see what we now see lol.

Our default mode can often be operating on doing more, striving more, pushing more, or trying harder to accomplish what we think we desire (I say think, because in truth we’re always just wanting to feel GoOD, to feel Him and this Presence always IS). But we come to a point in our journeys where exhaustion pays us a visit and most probably ends in burnout giving us only one option: TO SURRENDER.

If you’ve experienced burnout before, you know how it feels like, and for sure it doesn’t feel like ease, flow, rest, or a natural state. It feels like giving up, constriction, like where do I sign myself out of here? Good! You’ve reached the moment He is reminding you of something different. You’re trying to run faster than God; you’re trying to force outcomes that have already been established.

Surrendering may look like defeat; it is not. It’s where true momentum is built, and without the seeming effort being there, it’s when true change happens. The movement happens, because you finally surrendered to the changeless one—to the One that makes movement possible in the first place.

Reasoning usually doesn’t come first. It’s like you have to jump, dive in, fully trusting—and yes, later you see or understand the reason behind why you had to leave what you had to leave behind. But that’s not the most important thing: Is that you keep returning Here, to His Presence; the one that always feels the same—the big exhale, the open arms, the peace, Home.

So if you’ve reached the point where you’re tired of operating by your default learned wiring—to perform by constraint—this is the moment you release it so you can build with ease what has already been ordered: peace.

For me, it’s a constant thing. Surrendering is happening daily in the small things (bus is late, kid is sick, unexpected loss, etc) preparing me ultimately for the big surrender: death.

Last night, as I was putting my kids to bed my daughter asked: “Mum, are you going to die?”

I am still learning how to talk about these big topics with my kids, and what came spontaneously to share was this:
This body will not be here one day, but my Love can never leave— because it IS. It’s what makes these bodies alive, these moments being shared Here, this Life being Lived.
You know the sun, right? It’s always there (we cannot always see it). That’s God—our Father, our Creator—and we’re His rays of sunshine. We emanate from the One Source; the rays are one with God. So if a ray is not visible here on earth anymore, it’s like it has returned to the eternal Sun/Son, God.

PS! Maybe this bedtime story was more soothing to me than my kids now that I’m writing and sharing this over here lol.

But isn’t this our biggest weigh, our biggest fear, what we all carry so heavily inside of us? The fear of death, the unknown, not existing ever again?

But what if death meant Surrender— Surrender into new life, new creation, ever onward? Wouldn’t we do it with more ease? Returning back to the deep knowing of our eternal sun. Taking things with more ease, resting deeper into this moment, accepting the changeful nature of all appearances?
Letting go of whatever needs to dissolve so we can truly evolve.

Letting Love erase the fear.

Letting Light shine forth as the ray it already is.

Letting life be lived Now.

Letting Love be loved Now.

Where can you invite surrendering into your daily life?
What has had you holding your breath on imagination that is ready to be transmuted into Reality—into this Presence?

You can use the power of your tongue to turn small words into big prayers:

Father, I surrender this worry, this XYZ situation, to You. Let Your ease be felt; let Your peace wash over my situation.

Father, I surrender at Your feet the weight that has been keeping me stuck in my own ways and not rooted in Yours.

Father, I surrender the need for understanding. I choose to trust in Your faithful goodness that has been the only continuum in my life. I am ready to receive You more fully.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

SURRENDER and let the Silence be; let the Silence speak, and soon you’ll see how it moves too—but don’t be waiting 😉

I love you.