Mtr Mary Trainor

I surrender all, I surrender all
All to Thee my blessed Savior
I surrender all…*

Dear friend,

The Annunciation.

Today, the Church remembers the momentous occasion when the young Mary learns she will have a child, God’s son.

Not married, and little more than a girl herself, Luke tells us that Mary responds to the angel, and his life-changing message, with aplomb: Let it be with me according to your word.**

Mary, the God bearer, faces the reality that this moment changes everything she ever imagined her life would be like. She does it bravely and with no apparent doubt. God wants it, let it be so.

Mary’s yielding to God’s purpose is admirable. On the other hand, I have an on-again, off-again, relationship with God’s will.

All to Jesus I surrender
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine
Let me feel Thy Holy Spirit
Truly knowing that Thou art mine

I have no quarrel with God prevailing, and I have no problem praying “Your” will be done. Most of the time I recognize that I am not saved by my own actions, but simply and surely by the grace—and will—of God

Yet. In the presence of painful, ugly, challenging trials—my own or those of people I love—I find it difficult to shrug and say, “God’s will be done,” and walk away.

I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee my blessed Savior
I surrender all  …

Then—just when I need it most—God provides, and I encounter again the story of Mary, and her response to God’s will: Let it be with me according to your word  …

Mtr Mary

*I surrender all. Songwriters: Anson R. Dawkins / Derek Clark / Eric D. Dawkins / Judson Wheeler Van Deventer / Winfield Scott Weede