When Overcoming Means Surrender by Lori Benton

Author Lori Benton

When I think of overcoming, most often I imagine reaching a mountaintop, completing a task…

Meeting a challenge.

Enduring a trial.

Putting a weakness or bad habit behind me.

But what about those times when, despite our effort, prayer, and faith, the challenge isn’t met, the trial doesn’t end, the loss is irreversible, the mountain proves too steep to climb?

Letting go. Waiting. Surrender.

Far from defeat, surrender can be overcoming in another guise, when we surrender our will and plans and timetable to God, when we come to the end of our striving, and with open hearts say, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”

There was a season of surrender in my life. It came in the years following my treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1999. I’d been a writer for eight years at that point and had every intention of continuing on that path as soon as the chemotherapy and radiation were finished, and I got the all-clear from my oncologist. The all-clear came, but no matter how hard I tried post-chemo, I couldn’t write the way I used to. It felt like half my brain had been left behind in that chemo room where I’d spent so much time the previous six months.

I was experiencing what’s called chemo fog. After a year or two of fighting it, trying to find my way out of it—through discipline, prayer, better nutrition, exercise, anything I could think of to help my brain recover—I was forced to admit this mountain is too steep for me, this loss may be irreversible. I surrendered my dream of writing novels to God.

Okay, Lord. You haven’t taken away my desire to write, but You haven’t returned the ability. I don’t know what to do, so I’m going to trust that if You want me to write again, You’ll heal my brain—at some point. I’m going to trust You to give me the peace I need in order to do nothing but rest, and wait, until You tell me otherwise.

For me, that was overcoming. Overcoming my impatience, my plans, my will, my sense of timing. My finding my self-worth and identity in writing.

It wasn’t until 2004 I felt the Lord nudging me to try writing again. Turns out He still had a plan for me regarding writing. He just had some maturing He wanted to do in me first.

Whether its reaching the top of that mountain, or finding peace when the strength to climb is taken away, God is using every circumstance in our lives to grow us up, to ready us for the endless fellowship we’ll enjoy with Him in eternity, and to bless each other now, to encourage each other with the comfort we’ve been given.

During this Easter season, take a moment to picture our hero, our Savior, Jesus, on His knees sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, beseeching His Father, “Let this cup (this cup brimming with physical suffering, separation from God, the burden of our sins, yours and mine) pass from me. Nevertheless… not my will, but Yours be done.”

Our greatest example of overcoming through surrender.

The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn is Lori Benton's second novel released by Waterbrook Multnomah!

Book blurb:

Frontier dangers cannot hold a candle to the risks one woman takes by falling in love

In an act of brave defiance, Tamsen Littlejohn escapes the life her harsh stepfather has forced upon her. Forsaking security and an arranged marriage, she enlists frontiersman Jesse Bird to guide her to the Watauga settlement in western North Carolina. But shedding her old life doesn’t come without cost. As the two cross a vast mountain wilderness, Tamsen faces hardships that test the limits of her faith and endurance.

Convinced that Tamsen has been kidnapped, wealthy suitor Ambrose Kincaid follows after her, in company with her equally determined stepfather. With trouble in pursuit, Tamsen and Jesse find themselves thrust into the conflict of a divided community of Overmountain settlers. The State of Franklin has been declared, but many remain loyal to North Carolina. With one life left behind and chaos on the horizon, Tamsen struggles to adapt to a life for which she was never prepared. But could this challenging frontier life be what her soul has longed for, what God has been leading her toward? As pursuit draws ever nearer, will her faith see her through the greatest danger of all—loving a man who has risked everything for her?

CFP:  Thanks so much for this beautiful testimony, Lori! And congratulations to Lori on her DOUBLE Christy Award finalist status, announced this past week!  Lori's novel "Burning Sky" is a Christy finalist for debut and for historical novel.  

GIVEAWAY: This week we will be giving away two copies of Lori's new release "The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn" and a $10 Starbucks gift card!  We'll have two to three reviews of Laurie's lovely novel!!!  Answer this question:  Has God left you with anything you've had to surrender completely over to Him?  How has it affected your relationship with Him?