I'm Giving Up All My Rights

Whether it was a choice, someone was convinced, or in some cases, they were forced, when a parent signs over their rights, all ties with their child are terminated.  They can't sign over their rights and then go back and say, "Oh, but I really want him/her to go to this school..." or "All of that is fine, but could you raise them in this religion..."  They have given up COMPLETE control over every single decision in the child's life going forward.

As I drove in to work this morning, I listened to the Chris Tomlin cd as I have a hundred times before (literally). But this morning, as I listened to the song "Lay Me Down," I was struck by 5 words that hadn't necessarily stuck out to me before... "Giving up ALL my rights."

I immediately pictured the above scenario where a parent makes the decision to sign over their rights.  They make the decision (or it is made fore them) that they will no longer control any aspect of the child's life.

I began to think about what this would look like in our relationship with Christ, and then it hit me...this is what Christ REQUIRES of us.  He doesn't RECOMMEND that we are all in, He insists on it.  In fact, He tells us in Revelation 3:16 that He will spit us out of His mouth if we are lukewarm.  Genesis 19:26 tells us that Sarah turned into a pillar of salt for turning around to look back.  And there are countless accounts of Christ telling followers that they must leave everything behind and follow Him.  One man is not allowed to go home to bury his  father while another was not able to go back home to tell his family goodbye (Luke 9:57-62).

When we choose to follow Christ, we are to do that, and that alone.  In a sense, the day we become a believer, we sign the rights of our life over to Christ.  As I previously mentioned, when you sign your rights over, you can't come back and try to make decisions in different areas of the child's life.  In the same way, when we ask Jesus to come and live in our hearts, when we decide that we are going to follow Him all the days of our life, we give Him total control of our life.  We can't take back control each time we get a little uncomfortable with the direction He is taking us or if our fleshly desires want something He does not want for us.

When we sign our rights over to Christ, we are allowing Him to lead us.  We are trusting His will for our lives and we follow wherever He leads - Every. Single. Day... In Every. Single. Way.