TWO PROFOUND WORDS
by
William Cottringer


There are two profound words being used a lot today by popular spiritual writers. These two words are: Surrender and Obedience.

The dictionary defines these two words as follows:

Surrender- To yield to the power of another; to give up something in favor of or for the sake of another; to relinquish oneself into the possession of another.

Obedience- Doing what one is told; submission to authority; being willing to follow instructions and be compliant.

Unfortunately, these two words carry some fairly heavy-duty negative connotations, including weakness, submission, quitting, passivity, failure and subservience—most of the things we believe are counter-productive to success. However, these two profound words actually define the road to genuine success and deserve closer examination.

First of all, anyone who has ever tried to apply the true meaning of these words to his or her life will tell you that it takes more active effort to do so, than engaging in exhausting construction work. There is no passivity involved! To surrender and be obedient takes active learning, great understanding, boundless energy and total commitment—all just to consider doing these two things!

SURRENDER

The act of surrendering the illusion of control is almost comical. We will resist giving up this illusion to our very last breath. Stop and think of all the life threatening things you have no control over and yet give no thought to—your breathing, heartbeat, consciousness, waking up after going to sleep—and then think of all the things you worry about being in control of that are so much less significant. At some point, this approach has to stop making good sense.

The process of personal and spiritual development simply requires you to let go of artificial control to enjoy the real control you get by giving into to the natural flow of life with all its natural laws. You are exchanging a faulty blueprint that changes by the minute for an award-winning building that will last forever. Why does it take us so long to make that wise choice?

When you let go of what your mind thinks you want (small cheese—college degrees, job promotions, houses, fame, fortune, etc.), you are freer to give into what your soul knows you need (big cheese—happiness, genuine success, creativity, compassion, love, and peace of mind), so that you can eventually have both. This is called having your cheese and eating it too. It is an amazing positive outcome of surrendering.

The act of surrendering is just taking advantage of the opportunity to learn from failure and start over again, armed with better information to be successful at doing the right things in the right ways for the right reasons. Most successful people have a knack for persevering through a series of failures. They have surrendered to the timeliness of the success they will eventually achieve from life’s own time frame; they are not in a rush to miss the important lessons of their failures.

OBEDIENCE

If there is one unmistakable and pervasive reality it is this: There are hierarchies with pecking orders everywhere. There is a never ending food chain all around us. What is the big deal of being obedient? All we have to do is stop wasting valuable time in being obedient to the wrong things—situational ethics, short range temporary fixes, the illusion of control, differences between people, getting ahead by whatever means, greed, self-centeredness, lies, egos, pride and everything else that turns out to be the wrong wall to have placed our latter against.

We reacted against authority to form this country of ours, and then acted—to become obedient to the right values, principles and truths of freedom, democracy, equality and responsibility. Somewhere along the line though, we threw the baby out with the bath water. We got too impressed with ourselves in our abilities to make life into what we wanted it to be. And we became too successful to even question why the rewards weren’t what we expected. We were too busy achieving to notice what we lost.

The only way to get the real rewards that are intended for us to enjoy, is to learn to fit in wherever we are right now and become obedient to the right things—the principles, values and truths that accurately describe how things operate in reality. When it comes down to it, this is simply a matter of giving up something that was never really ours—our selves and egos, which are nothing more than a collection of ideas, beliefs, values, expectations, feelings and a variety of other mental products acquired from our interactions with others. Ironically there is no ownership of anything to give up.

When you finally experience the positive side of surrendering and being obedient, a funny thing happens that is completely opposite of what you expected—you become truly free for the first time. And freedom is the real reward we all crave. Find positive ways to surrender and be obedient and be free; help others do that too.



William Cottringer, Ph.D. is a Business Success Coach, College Teacher and Sport Psychologist from Collinsville, IL. He is also author of You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too. He can be reached at ckurtdoc.charter.net