Fear of Submission (cont’d)
There is one great casualty of our lack of submission: Trust.
The Trust-Killer
There is a bridge in Tampa Bay called the Sunshine Skyway. It is a 175-foot high suspension bridge over the main shipping channel. To cross it in windy conditions or during one of our famous Florida thunderstorms can be really dicey.
Getting to the other side of the bay requires me to drive over the bridge (which I hope to be trustworthy). So I grit my teeth, grab the steering wheel a little tighter and — praying the entire time — force myself to make it across. While this successfully gets me to the other side, it doesn’t get me there in restful, peaceful, contented trust.
We often relate to God this way. We recognize that we are supposed to rely on God, especially when conditions are rough. So we grit our teeth, grab our religious tradition a little tighter and — praying the entire time — force ourselves to make it through the day. While this gets us through our circumstances, it doesn’t get us there in restful, peaceful, contented trust.
In fact, it is not an experience of trust because it is not genuine submission. We believe that we have trusted God because we have involved him in our lives, yet we’ve done so with our hands still tightly on the wheel. God has been a valued passenger on our journey, but he’s not been the driver.
We’ve not really submitted, and in choosing not to submit we kill our ability to trust.
Trust = Belief +Submission + Action
The issue of faith/trust is complex, and I hesitate reducing it to a simplistic formula. But to illustrate the role of submission, think about trust as a composite of (at least) three elements:
Belief — What we know or hold to be true about a person or thing
Submission — A willingness to defer, yield or abide by/in
Action — The resultant act or follow-through that demonstrates trust
It may be difficult to distinguish one from the other, but all three components must be present for trust to occur. They are in every great Biblical story of trust in God: Abraham with Isaac, Moses in the Exodus, David and Goliath, Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal, Peter walking on the water, … and the list goes on.
Generally, we aren’t afraid of belief; it is the easiest of the three in which to engage. Usually, we can clearly define what we believe about things, and how that affects our level of trust. I also find that we are sometimes afraid to act (I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say, “…I really should get back to church…”). Still, we usually see action as a natural and necessary step that must be taken in order to trust something or someone.
But I find that we are most afraid of submission. Generally speaking, we loathe the idea. We avoid it, and we try to organize our lives and the practice of our faith in such a way that the issue of submission never comes up.
It’s also the most difficult of the three to measure. I can dictate my belief system and my theology, and I can account for my actions. But how do I quantify my submission?
Of the three elements of trust, submission is the most elusive; we are silently blind to it. And because we are blind to it, our unwillingness to submit silently kills our level of trust.
That’s a shame, because submission is the element that breathes life and substance into faith. It is submission that makes “faith” — confidence or trust in a person or thing — real faith, and not just conceptual faith. Only submission will produce the qualities of faith that we long for so deeply: things like peace, security, confidence, contentment, etc.
That’s because in choosing not to submit to God, we’re choosing to be our own god. It is our hands that are still firmly on the wheel, thank you very much. Naturally, this produces anxiety, fear, worry, etc., because we know we’re not God — no matter how hard we try to be.
The Ultimate Question
The reasons we refuse to submit are as varied as our individualities and the circumstances we encounter. But the point is that we have not been willing to submit — to yield, surrender, abide by, accept or defer — to God and his sovereignty in and over our lives.
So, as it relates to our spirituality and the fear of submission, this becomes the ultimate question for us to consider:
questions.4.consideration
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Can you think of a time recently where you allowed God to be your passenger, but not be your driver? How did your trip go?
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Think of something/someone that you don’t trust. Then consider that (generally) belief is an issue of the head, action is an issue of the body and submission is an issue of the heart. Can you identify how these three elements might be affecting your ability to trust in this instance?
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Now try to identify something/someone that you do trust. Can you identify how these three elements might allow you to trust that thing/person?
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Can you remember a season of life in which you experienced peace, security, confidence, contentment, etc.? Looking back on that time, can you see submission playing a role?
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Recognizing that it may be difficult to measure, how would you measure submission in your life right now? How would you identify submission in the lives of others?
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What does “submission to God” mean to you?
Coming next: My identity — am I comfortable not being God?
