Thy Will Be Done by Allison Medland

“But there’s a beauty in surrendering, in letting go, and letting God take control.”

Surrender. It has a negative connotation in today’s day and age because people connect it with failure. They associate it with losing. And nobody likes to lose. The hardest part about it, is admitting to ourselves that we don’t have all the answers, and that we don’t know what’s best. It requires relinquishing control. And in today’s day and age, it is something we are forgetting how to do.

Nowadays, everyone needs a plan. You need to have everything under control, where you’re going to college, and what you want to do with the rest of your life. And that’s a lot of pressure. But there’s a beauty in surrendering, in letting go, and letting God take control. After all, His plan is far greater than ours could ever be. There’s also a peace that comes with surrendering to God. Because what do you have to worry about when He has it under control. God is glorified by the moments when we have no choice but to depend upon Him and trust Him. Because it’s easy to think we can do everything for ourselves and we don’t need God when our lives are going good, but it’s in our moments of weakness that teach us to depend on Him.

A few months ago, I heard about something called the Surrender Novena. A novena is where you say a prayer or pray for a specific intention for nine days in a row. It’s a very powerful type of prayer because it’s a way to show your trust in the Lord by giving it all to Him day after day. The Surrender Novena struck a chord with me because I was going through a time in my life where I wasn’t sure I was making any of the right decisions. It intrigued me because it was written by Don Dolindo Ruotolo, the spiritual director of Saint Padre Pio. He received the words of this novena from Jesus. I had had a particularly rough semester with school, and I just didn’t know where to turn. So, after hearing the novena mentioned in a homily at a local church, and hearing it mentioned on a podcast, I knew that the two couldn’t be a coincidence. God had put it on my heart.

I prayed the novena and while I didn’t feel like it was life changing, it did bring me some peace. But after I prayed it, I found that the prayers stayed with me.

During this time, I mentioned the novena to a close friend. She was going to enter a monastery and I mentioned the novena to her. She hadn’t heard about it, but I encouraged her to look into it. After, I didn’t think too much about it. A few months later, the day had come when she was joining the monastery, and we were saying our goodbyes. The novena came up in conversation. She mentioned how much peace it had brought her; that there was no way the past week, one full of goodbyes would’ve gone so smoothly if not for that novena. I was ecstatic to hear that, happy that it had brought her peace.

So, my encouragement to you is pray the novena. You never know the good that may come out of it. And just know that I am praying for you every step of the way.

ABOUT ALLISON MEDLAND: Allison was born and raised in Alaska. She can probably be found around horses or any other animal. She loves hiking, reading, fishing, swing dancing, and just about anything that can be done outside. Her favorite book is Conagher by Louis L'Amour because it's a simple, beautiful, western. One of her favorite parts of being Catholic is adoration.