For the past few days I have been experimenting in a more complete surrender than ever before. I am taking, by deliberate act of will, enough time from each hour to give God much thought. Yesterday and today I have made a new adventure, which is not easy to express. I am feeling God in each movement, by an act of will—willing that He shall direct these fingers that now strike this typewriter—willing that He shall pour through my steps as I walk—willing that He shall direct my words as I speak, and my very jaws as I eat!

You will object to this intense introspection. Do not try it, unless you feel dissatisfied with your own relationship with God, but at least allow me to realize all the leadership of God I can. I am disgusted with the pettiness and futility of my unled self. If the way out is not more perfect slavery to God then what is the way out? Paul speaks of liberty in Christ. I am trying to be utterly free from everybody, free from my own self, but completely enslaved to the will of God every moment of this day.

We used to sing a song in church of my boyhood in Benton, Michigan which I liked, but which I never really practiced until now. It runs:

Moment by moment, I’m kept in His love;

Moment by moment, I’ve life from above;

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine

It is exactly that “moment by moment,” every waking moment, surrender, responsiveness, obedience, sensitiveness pliability, “lost in His love,” that I now have the mind-bent to explore with all my might. It means two burning passions: First, to be like Jesus. Second, to respond to God as a violin responds to the bow of the master.

Frank C. Laubach, Letters By A Modern Mystic, January 26