John Eldredge, Agnes Sanford, and C. S. Lewis: Surrender

The spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because the Lord has anointed Me; He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion — to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display His glory. Isaiah 61:3

“If you wanted to learn how to heal the blind and you thought that following Christ around and watching how He did it would make things clear, you’d wind up pretty frustrated. He never does it the same way twice. He spits on one guy; for another, He spits on the ground and makes mud and puts that on his eyes. To a third He simply speaks, a fourth He touches, and a fifth He kicks out a demon.

There are no formulas with God. The way in which God heals our wound is a deeply personal process. He is a person and He insists on working personally. For some, it comes in a moment of divine touch. For others, it takes place over time and through the help of another, maybe several others. As Agnes Sanford says, “There are in many of us wounds so deep that only the mediation of someone else to whom we may ’bare our grief’ can heal us.”

So much healing took place in my life simply through my friendship with Brent. …We were friends. We spent hours together flyfishing, backpacking, hanging out in pubs. Just spending time with a man I truly respected, a real man who loved and respected me—nothing heals quite like that…

Healing never happens outside of intimacy with Christ. The healing of our wound flows out of our union with him. But there are some common themes that I share with you as you seek the restoration of your heart. The first step seems so simple it’s almost hard to believe we overlook it, never ask for it, and when we do, we sometimes struggle for days just to get the words out. It begins with surrender.

As Lewis says, “Until you have given yourself to Him you will not have a real self.” We return the branch to its trunk; we yield our lives to the One who is our Life. And then we invite Jesus into the wound; we ask Him to come and meet us there, to enter into the broken and unhealed places of our heart. When the Bible tells us that Christ came to “redeem mankind” it offers a whole lot more than forgiveness.

To simply forgive a broken man is like telling someone running a marathon, “It’s okay that you’ve broken your leg. I won’t hold that against you. Now finish the race.” That is cruel, to leave him disabled that way. No, there is much more to our redemption. The core of Christ’s mission is foretold in Isaiah 61.”

Agnes Sanford and C. S. Lewis as cited by John Eldredge in Wild at Heart (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001) 76-77.

I like that Eldredge speaks of the impact of a flyfishing friend. I have one of those. His name is John Stanley. John has been one of the greatest influences in my life in recent years. He’s the one who taught me the Surrender Novena though always gives credit to Dolindo Ruotolo where he got it. It goes like this:

“Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!’ Say that 10 times a day. Especially when challenges arise.

If you come to God feeling wounded or broken in any area of life, notice the advice from Sanford today. “There are in many of us wounds so deep that only the mediation of someone else to whom we may ’bare our grief’ can heal us.” The suffering servant that Isaiah foretold is Jesus.

As I read Eldredge sitting in Colombia, a place filled with brokenness, I feel I need to proclaim this.

And read what my favorite professor, C. S. Lewis says about Jesus. “Until you have given yourself to Him you will not have a real self.” So the generosity to is a bit of a paradox. If we are willing to give ourself to Jesus, it will cost us everything, but we will gain our real self.

The Savior that Isaiah foretold delivers us from our old or false self and gives us a new or real one.

The only pathway to grasp this, daily, is surrender. Discover the freedom of surrender afresh today. Pray the Surrender Novena over every wound, every worry, every temptation, and every trouble. Bringing Jesus into every minute of your life does not bring you down. It lifts you up. Give yourself to Him today afresh.

Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19

“Several years ago I was thumbing through the introduction of a book when I ran across a sentence that changed my life. God is intimately personal with us and he speaks in ways that are peculiar to our own quirky hearts—not just through the Bible, but through the whole of creation.

To Stasi he speaks through movies. To Craig he speaks through rock and roll (he called me the other day after listening to “Running Through the Jungle” to say he was fired up to go study the Bible). God’s word to me comes in many ways—through sunsets and friends and films and music and wilderness and books. But he’s got an especially humorous thing going with me and books.

I’ll be browsing through a secondhand book shop when out of a thousand volumes one will say , “Pick me up”—just like Augustine in his Confessions. Tolle legge—take up and read. Like a master fly fisherman God cast his fly to this cruising trout. In the introduction to the book that I rose to this day, the author (Gil Bailie) shares a piece of advice given to him some years back by a spiritual mentor:

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

I was struck dumb. It could have been Balaam’s donkey, for all I was concerned. Suddenly my life up till that point made sense in a sickening sort of way; I realized I was living a script written for me by someone else. All my life I had been asking the world to tell me what to do with myself.

This is different from seeking counsel or advice; what I wanted was freedom from responsibility and especially freedom from risk. I wanted someone else to tell me who to be. Thank God it didn’t work. The scripts they handed me I simply could not bring myself to play for very long.

Like Saul’s armor, they never fit. Can a world of posers tell you to do anything but pose yourself? As Frederick Buechner says, we are in constant danger of being not actors in the drama of our lives but reactors, “to go where the world takes us, to drift with whatever current happens to be running the strongest.”

Reading the counsel given to Bailie I knew it was God speaking to me. It was an invitation to come out of Ur. I set the volume down without turning another page and walked out of that bookstore to find a life worth living.

Gil Bailie and Frederick Buechner as cited by John Eldredge in Wild at Heart (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001) 113-114.

Our Scripture reading for today is likely my #1 favorite text. It sums up my calling. It marks what makes me come alive. To command those with more than enough to live – the rich in this present age – to grasp the life that is really life by enjoying and sharing God’s provision.

And now we turn to John Eldredge, another Colorado-based author, and we read from another classic book. And this post is long so I will try to be brief.

Most as Buechner put it, drift along and just go where the current takes them. Others, as Bailie put it, do what makes them come fully alive. The question is where do you fit in this post. Are you a reactor rather than an actor in the story of God? Are you playing your part or just sitting in the crowd?

I flew down to Bogotá to meet up with Paula and to activate the service of Eliana and Esther. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow we do a discernment retreat to map the faithful work for launching Palmful of Coffee.

In the words of Eldredge, I think they would say they are doing this because it makes them come alive. What I reminded them is that it has the potential to make 2.5 million indigenous workers in the Coffee Triangle come alive in Christ Jesus.

So I ask again, what about you? Are you a reactor rather than an actor in the story of God? Are you playing your part or just sitting in the crowd?

The best way to get in the game is to put to work what you have. Read today’s Scripture again and do what it says.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2

“Should I fear money? Should I love money? Should I respect money? Should I hate money? Should I use money? Should I borrow money? Should I budget money? Should I sacrifice everything for money? … We must teach our children. And more than teach, we must pray for their deliverance from money’s domination. This is no light matter. Money is not just a thing — it is a power. The moment we expose our children to money — and expose them we must — we should pray for their protection.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 84-85.

Colombia, according to a recent study, ranks in the top ten of corrupt countries in the world. The corruption circles, like vultures over a carcass, around money. People steal, kill, and destroy the lives of others for money.

How does it get this way? What can we do to bring about change?

The long game says we rally church and ministry workers to teach the people they serve about faith and finances while following standards and modeling faithful stewardship to chart a new course for our children and grandchildren.

That’s why GTP helped establish Orden in this country. Praise God 66 ministries have registered interest for accreditation.

But this whole process must be covered in prayer. Pray for Paula and me as we activate the service of Eliana and Esther in Bogotá this weekend. And say a prayer today for your children and grandchildren.

Pray for them to learn to make money their slave. Otherwise they may fall prey to the most horrible of masters.

Every January, April, July, and October, GTP offers a free on demand course called Faith and Finances. Learn more here. And please pass on what you learn to your children and grandchildren while covering them in prayer.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? Luke 16:10-11

“Patrick Henry wrote into his will that if he had left nothing in terms of worldly riches but had given his heirs faith in Jesus Christ, then they were of all people most wealthy. Conversely, he added that if he had left them with all the wealth in the world but had not left them a faith a Jesus Christ, they would be of all people most destitute.”

Patrick Henry as cited by Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 82.

My granddaughters and future grandchildren have been on my mind a lot lately. I don’t want to ruin them with money. I want to teach them to make it their slave. I want them to master worldly wealth so they get true riches.

Easier said than done! The world bombards them with opportunities to make poor financial decisions. For starters, I want them to learn the value of work (think: do chores) and understand saving, spending, and sharing (think: three decorated jars).

Saving is the “margin” piece I’ve been writing about lately. It appears in daily practices as living on less than we make so we have resources or “margin” to live, give, serve, and love generously. It also enables you to meet unexpected expenses with funding.

The “spending” part is easy to teach, while the “sharing” piece will take a little more work. I like the word “sharing” as it represents the New Testament word for giving, koinonia, which can be translated fellowship, sharing, or communion.

Today I fly to Bogotá, Colombia (pictured above on my first trip there in 2023).

I will meet up with Paula Mendoza, GTP Chief Administration and Mobilization Officer, from Guatemala. Together we will activate two new workers. Eliana Ramirez begins her full-time service as GTP Project Manager for South America.

Eliana’s main project to manage is Palmful of Coffee. I am so excited about this. And she will not go at it alone.

Esther Zuluaga, already serves as GTP Country Coordinator for Colombia and Founder of the Peer Accountability Group, Foundation Orden Colombia. Esther joins GTP as a part-time contractor serving as Vision Architect for Palmful of Coffee.

Thanks for your prayers for a fruitful trip from 8-12 August 2025. And pray with me that Palmful of Coffee helps spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the 2.5 million indigenous workers in the Coffee Triangle.

Imagine, they drink some of the best coffee in the world, but I want them to taste true riches. And I must add, this vision launches because a long-time friend, Travis Shelton, put his arm around me earlier this year and said, “let’s do this!”

I thank God for his sacrificial and generous giving which will shape the future of Colombia!

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard hearted or tightfisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Deuteronomy 15:7-8

“However, there is a danger of too much calculation in our giving. That danger is the subtle tendency to call the shots. The warm openness that once characterized our giving can gradually turn into tightfistedness. A miserly spirit becomes justified in the name of prudent and responsible giving.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 75.

Foster brings a real danger into view today. To “call the shots” means we act like the owner of all we possess. Once we act like it is ours, we get tightfisted.

When we embrace our role as steward and obediently follow God’s instructions we find ourselves enjoying and sharing, sometimes helping others and sometimes receiving help.

John Stanley, a dear mentor and friend, has taught me that focusing on creating margin helps us proactively avoid the tendency toward of becoming miserly.

They both start with the letter “m” and take you down two paths. The soft hearted steward willing to share creates margin to do that. The hard hearted steward does too much calculation and becomes miserly.

How do we create margin? We don’t do too much calculation. We keep track of all supplies and put it to work faithfully with space for God to direct us in new ways. This positions us to receive and steward more for enjoyment and sharing.

This is life in God’s economy.

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 1 Corinthians 16:2-3

“With glad and generous hearts, let us keep in creative tension “reasoned” giving and “risk” giving. There is one kind of giving that carefully evaluates the track record of organizations and individuals, and another that gives without calculation. Both kinds of giving are essential.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 75.

I love these two expressions: reasoned giving and risk giving. Reasoned giving is intentional, calculated, and distributed to trusted people. It follows the pattern of today’s Scripture.

But sometimes God nudges us to help someone who has made poor decisions. Risk giving says to help them not because they deserve it, but because God helped us when we were undeserving.

What if you made two gifts today? What if you sent a gift to ministry that you trust or that has undertaken a project? And what if you also gave a gift to aid someone who does not deserve it?

Sit with the Holy Spirit. Ponder the possibilities. Follow God’s leading in making reasoned and risk gifts.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 1 Corinthians 13:11

“When we have a spirit of thanksgiving we can hold all things lightly. We receive; we do not grab. And when it is time to let go, we do so freely. We are not owners, only stewards. Our lives do not consist of the things that we have, for we live and move and breathe in God, not things. And may I add that this includes those intangible “things” that are often our greatest treasures-status, reputation, position. These are the things that come and go in life, and we can learn to be thankful when they come and thankful when they go.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 49.

I got to spend the day with my two granddaughters recently. They turned 3 years old and 1 year old back in April and I find joy watching them grow up. When I read the word, grab, in today’s reading I thought of them.

Children grab for things. They love to carry them around. And when they see what someone else has, they seem to only want to grab what the other person has. They grab for things and hold them tight.

God wants us to move beyond this way of thinking. He wants us to live open-handed lives as stewards and to share things freely. And He wants us to hold tightly to things more important than money and possessions as we age.

Today I feel a burden and passion to make sure my granddaughters get this. Do you have little people in your life that you can teach about stewardship and generosity? Make the most of the opportunity to teach them and set a generous example.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40

“Let us discover ways to get in touch with the poor. One of the most damaging things affluence does is allow us to distance ourselves from the poor so we no longer see their pain. We then can create an illusionary world that prevents us from evaluating life in the light of “love of neighbor”… Let us give with glad generous hearts. Giving has a way of routing out the tough old miser within us. Even the poor need to know that they can give. Just the very act of letting go of money, or some other treasure, does something within us. It destroys the demon greed.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 35.

“Even the poor need to know that they can give.”

I shared with readers about Palmful of Maize, a vision GTP launched in Malawi in 2022. By way of an update, it’s already engaged the participation of 1,136,250 children to give. Those children have helped 10,474 starving people with compassionate care. Find other stats here.

Why mention that today? Needs about everywhere in the world.

God has resource people everywhere as well. He wants all of us to destroy the demon greed by doing what we can with what we have where we are. And when we do this for even the least significant people, we do it for Jesus.

I have learned that God does not just want me to give with a glad and generous heart.

He loves it when I encourage everyone I know to grasp life in this way. When I do, the hungry get fed. The hurting get a hand up. And in the process, he transforms misers into ministers. Join me in this work.

Or allow the deceitfulness of wealth to win and let your affluence destroy you. Strong words but they echo Jesus.

Later this week I head to Colombia to activate the project manager who will oversee Palmful of Coffee. Your giving to GTP spreads the gospel, advances accountability, and grows generosity in the hardest places.

Thanks for your partnership. Join the work in Colombia here.

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16–21

“In the parable of the rich farmer who tore down his barns to make way for expansion, we have every indication of honesty and industry (Luke 12:16–21). We would call him prudent-Jesus called him a fool” … This radical criticism of wealth makes no sense at all unless we see it in the context of its spiritual reality. It is one of the principalities and powers that must be conquered and redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ before it can use for the greater good of the kingdom of God.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 31.

God’s design and desire for humans who experience abundant blessing is enjoyment and sharing. This goes all the way back to Abraham. ““I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” Genesis 12:2

Notice the difference between Abraham and the rich farmer. One functioned as a conduit of blessing. So he got to enjoy and share abundance. The other operated as a container. The world calls him prudent and industrious. But in the story God called him a fool and took his life.

And don’t miss what God says. He will take yours too if you don’t choose the path of being rich toward God. “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” In this sense, generosity is the only prudent path to take.

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9

“The very fact that we have the leisure time to read a book or watch television means that we are wealthy. We do not need to be ashamed of our wealth or try to hide it from ourselves and others. It is only as we admit our wealth and quit trying to run from it that we are in a position to conquer it and use it for God’s good purpose.”

Richard Foster in The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power (HarperOne: San Francisco, 1979) 33.

I enjoyed the last book by Foster so much, I’ve moved to another classic. This is a must-read if you have never read it. Today’s exhortation is to use whatever wealth God has entrusted to you to make friends for eternity.

My great grandfather (before my time) would say, our wealth is like a cup. God filled it so we’d have something to enjoy and share. But if we leave it in the cup, He cannot refill it. We must put it to work, use it for Him.

Today’s charge is to take inventory of what you have and put it in play to accomplish God’s good purposes. If fear holds you back, it reveals your trust is misplaced in that wealth. Don’t let your story end there.

Write a new ending. Put it to work. Use worldly wealth to make friends for eternity. And the welcome you will get in heaven will be unfathomable. You’ve got this. God’s got you.