Surrender and Submission

"Surrender your whole being to God to be used for righteous purposes."--Romans 6.13
I can't think of two more unpopular words for 21st century Americans than surrender and submission. We pride ourselves on being free from everything and everybody. We pride ourselves on pursuing happiness. We pride ourselves on being winners. So, what is this talk of surrender and submission?
Well, it is actually essential to following Jesus. We cannot follow Jesus without surrendering our agendas, our self-interests, our control of our lives. We talk about Jesus being our Lord and Savior. The very definition of a lord is one who is submitted to. I think part of our problem is that there are many people throughout history who were forced to submit to others. Slavery is clearly wrong. Discrimination is clearly wrong. Racism and sexism is clearly wrong. Forced submission to a class of people based on race, sex, age, national origin, etc. is wrong. But the difference in surrender and submission to Jesus is that He is our Creator, so He actually is the only One who we owe complete surrender and submission.
The interesting thing about surrendering our lives to Jesus is that the more we surrender, the more liberated we are. You see, as Rick Warren writes in the Purpose Driven Life, we will submit to something or someone, even if it is our own self-obsession.
To fulfill the first purpose of our lives, WE WERE PLANNED FOR GOD'S PLEASURE, we have to submit to Jesus. This is actually a relief instead of an imprisonment. Followers of Jesus have found that to release control and self-determination to Jesus' Lordship, is to finally find peace in the knowledge that someone greater than us is in control, one who cares so much for us that even the hairs of our head are numbered! (Matthew 10:30)