SHARE Magazine July 2016 | Page 18

Surrender O One of my sons became fascinated from a very early age with aeroplanes. Whenever a plane flew overhead, he would run outside and gaze in wonder at that bird-like machine in the sky. “When you grow up, son?” I would ask him, “What would you like to become?” He always replied. “I’m going to be a pilot!” He was always very definite about his dream. My dreams were more artistic, perhaps to become a great writer and a great musician one day. That changed suddenly, one Sunday morning at Church sometime between twelve and one o’clock. I sat to the right of the aisle, near the back of the congregation, tightly squeezed between two Church brothers. After my conversion, I had been baptized at the age of fourteen at Assembly Hall on Orange Street in Kingston, Jamaica. This was another Brethren Church, where every Sunday the congregation gathered to remember the Lord’s death by breaking bread and drinking wine. Packed like sardines on long wooden benches, men were all dressed in jackets and ties and women with hat-covered heads fanned away the heat. When I walked into Church that Sunday morning, full commitment to Christ was definitely not on my mind. Such dedication demanded giving up personal ambitions which were almost carved in stone, never to be removed. Nobody gives up cherished dreams except for some far better goal, or some challenge that supersedes strongly held ambitions. I had proven myself successful, so 18 | SHARE|MAGAZINE I thought, with published poetry at the age of ten, and had taught myself part of a Beethoven’s sonata during one summer holiday. Nobody could stop me! I was sure I could accomplish anything. During the worship, various brothers prayed and read Scriptures relating to the crucifixion. In the quiet, strong emotion that could easily be felt, in my spirit I saw Jesus falling beneath the weight of the cross, then a soldier compelling Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross. I seemed to hear the voice of Jesus say, “I gave every ounce of strength for you! What will you give for me?” I used to think, “If God called me to Africa or to the Amazon, I could not go.” How could I give up all my ambitions? I was like a child holding out a box of chocolates to his playmate and saying, “You can have anything on the top row, but the bottom row is mine!” “I’ll attend Church regularly, read my Bible as often as I can, even pray some more. I’ll do the best I can at school, so others can see I’m following You, but I’ll still cling to my dreams!” Still, those words ‘every ounce of strength’ kept ringing in my ears! ‘For me, for me, every ounce of strength for me!’ It was only reasonable to fully surrender to Him! Tears streamed down my fourteen-year-old face! Suddenly, I yielded. “I’ll go where you want me to go!” I had received Jesus Christ the night before my thirteenth birthday as my personal Savior from sin. Now, July - September 2016