Letting Go: Daily Surrender

Editor’s Note: DC Service Corps member Julie Bauerle reflects on her journey before she arrived at Franciscan Mission Service and the realization that striving to follow God’s will applies to daily life as well as the extended future.

In my life, I have always tried to do the will of God. A few months ago I read a quote from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton that stated, “The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is his will.”

This quote reminds me that I cannot just try to surrender to God in my “big life moments” but instead I must also surrender to God in my daily life. When I surrender or “let go” I will be on the right path, the path that God has intended for me. That realization is very freeing.

I am a young attorney. I graduated from law school two years ago, I passed the bar, and then I went looking for the “right” job. During the past two years, I was constantly searching for full-time employment and it consumed my life. It consumed my life so much so that I would put everything else off. My excuse for not going on a retreat, attending young adult activities, joining groups, joining a gym, etc. would always be that I needed to find a full-time job first and that I needed to be settled in my life before I would or could do anything else.

In some ways, I stopped living. I would pray for the right job, the one that was God’s will in a place where I was supposed to be and where I would be of service to others. However, this prayer did not extend to my daily life. I was praying to be put on the right path, but I was not thinking about surrendering to God in my daily life. I never thought that maybe it was God’s will that I actually live my life.

Around nine months ago, I started to realize that I was not doing the will of God by putting my life on hold for this illusive full-time job. It took time, but I started to realize that if I surrendered to the will of God in my daily life, then I would have the freedom to follow the path that God intended for me. It was an amazing lesson to learn and once I started to surrender to God in my daily life, my whole life started to make sense and the full-time job did not hold as much importance.

Not too long after this realization, I found Franciscan Mission Service and ended up starting this amazing journey of full-time service with DC Service Corps. In this whole process, I have learned how to surrender (or at least try to surrender) to God in my daily life. In letting go and surrendering to God, I have found my path, and while it is not always easy, it is freeing.

Reflection Question: Are you putting things on hold until you “get settled”? Have you stopped to think about the day aspects of your life to make sure you’re not letting the time pass you by?

Featured image: adaptation of photo by Pixabay user Malubeng – free for commercial use