Theologian Karl Rahner has an axiom that states, dependence on God and human freedom are in a relationship of direct proportion, not inverse proportion. In other words, freedom does not decrease, but rather increases when we surrender to God. This statement is contrary to what one might normally presume, that the more you surrender to God's will, the less freedom you have. For Rahner freedom is the freedom to be what we were created to be, the freedom to be in love with God. If you think about the analogy of a healthy marriage relationship, your relationship with the person you love, while inevitably involving some compromise, should ultimately bring out the best in you and foster your growth and development as a human being. Remember the famous line from the movie, As Good as it Gets? Jack Nicholson's character says to Helen Hunt's character, "You make me want to be a better person." (This line is, in my opinion, a much healthier concept for a relationship than the famous Jerry Maguire line, "You complete me," which smacks of co-dependence!) Another example is the line from a wedding homily in Gail Godwin's novel Evensong, in which the priest says of the couple, "May their having each other make more of them both." Our relationship with God should be this way - it should make us want to be better people. In loving surrender to God, we discover that God is the one that enables our freedom, the freedom that lets us become who we want to be.

The difficulty is balancing this tremendous freedom and dependence on God. Surrendering to God's will does not necessarily mean accepting things as they are, surrendering to the status quo. We use our freedom to co-create (with God) the reality in which we live. There is a joke about a pastor who prayed day after day to win the lottery to help the poor of his parish, and when he died he was expressing his anger at God for not answering his prayer. God says to the man, "Give me a break, you could have at least bought a ticket!" With freedom and faith there comes a responsibility to see the opportunities we are given and to act on them. At the same time, one must be careful not to use the "God helps those who help themselves" mentality to blame the victim.

The relationship between freedom and surrender means using freedom to try to act in accordance with God's will, but how do we know God's will? While there are many different ways and traditions of discernment in Christianity, the bottom line is we never know with absolute certainty that our actions are in accordance with the will of God. Presuming to know God's will is a dangerous business. The uncertainty with which we live is part of that to which we surrender. I have always taken comfort in the humble words of a prayer by Thomas Merton:

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.