Learning to submit can be enlightening
We have a complicated relationship with the idea of submission. We sometimes take great pride in our lack of willingness to submit to the ideas, advice or demands of others. Our independent streak is a wonderful tool, if used judiciously, however.
To be honest, I had a tendency to feel the same way about the concept of submission. That is, until I spent a little bit of time in a Sufi monastery. There I learned the word Islam means submission. Specifically, submission to God. The concept isn’t as clear cut as you’d imagine.
Submission can just as easily be viewed as a demand to do as you’re told. But that’s too simple. The closer I looked, the more I realized that “submitting oneself to God” is a poetic way of saying that we should use what we learn from spiritual texts to live our lives in the spirit of good relationships with our neighbors.
Though many will disagree with that interpretation of what I have gleaned of God’s purpose for us through my exposure — to various spiritual texts, spiritual literature, including the Bible — my view is focused almost entirely on how we behave toward one another. The Bible isn’t about God so much as it is about us.
It’s probably fair to say that “submission to God” is another way of saying “submission to God’s intent for us.” Whether one believes in God or not, it’s pretty clear that the objective purpose of world scripture is aimed at how to end cycles of violence, resentment, fear and envy of our neighbor.
What might it mean to submit under these circumstances?
To me, it means relenting to good advice. It means taking time to deeply consider the implications of my actions in the world. But also to take stock and expand upon the good I do as well.
Submitting, in a sense, is giving up. And the ego is triggered by that. It resists, because we then must admit we don’t know everything. What’s interesting to me is that there’s a freedom in this. Submitting ourselves to something else instinctively feels as though we are confining ourselves, even imprisoning ourselves to the rules and mastery of someone else. However, I’m certain that’s a false premise. Especially if we consider ourselves to be extensions of the Divine Source, we are in actuality submitting to our own deeper selves; the part within us through which our connection is made.
Perhaps this all sounds a bit metaphysical, but these things are not concrete. They are general ideas meant to get our heads out of the way of the work of our hearts.
Crucial to consider are your dreams and aspirations. Who are you deep down? In your dreams, what are you doing? What are you accomplishing? To what are you driven yet resist? Is there a dream job out there for you which you are afraid of pursuing? A particular lifestyle that you feel is natural to you but hasn’t yet occurred for one reason or another? Is the version of you that you present to the world an honest one?
What makes you think that these concerns aren’t part of submission? Because it isn’t just about following guidelines of behavior. It’s about listening to the voice inside you with honesty.
Now that the world has changed so drastically, and that those changes are not finished quite yet, what will you make of this time? You can look all around you and see people who have decided to change their life because of this moment.
In the social justice world everything is on its head now as well. LGBT rights, women’s rights, minority rights, indigenous rights, every aspect of our society has been flipped over to check the expiration date. We’ve been doing a deep dive on our behavior and have found it lacking. Enormous systemic change is at hand.
What does this all mean? I think it means that this moment now is perfect to consider if the person who you really are is the same as the one you’ve been telling yourself you are. Submission to God is the same thing as submission to your inner self. Because that’s where your divine spark is guiding you. Listen to it. Heed it. Relent To it. Submit to the truth of you. If there is a God, that’s what It most wants for us. For us to live in the space of joy that only self discovery can bring. To listen deeply to our heart for the answers about how to engage with the world, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and leave this world a better place than we found it.
I can submit to that.
Wil Darcangelo, M.div, is the minister at the First Parish UU Church of Fitchburg and of the First Church of Christ, Unitarian in Lancaster. Email wildarcangelo@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @wildarcangelo.