Week Twenty-Five: Letting Go/Surrender. June 18 – The Call to Release Outcomes

Gregg’s Reflection

Mumford and Sons have a song named Surrender: 

Letting go is the primary gesture of the spiritual journey. Wade in with us.

When I moved from the business world into Christian calling, one of the biggest shifts I faced was letting go of measurable results. In business, success was tangible—sales numbers, market share, quarterly reports. In the Kingdom, the work often feels hidden. You plant seeds in conversations, prayers, acts of kindness, but you don’t always see what grows.

Over the years, I’ve learned this truth Paul describes: my role is to plant and water, but the outcome is God’s. It’s not that we work less diligently, but that we work with an open hand. I can’t control who responds, how they grow, or what their faith journey will look like.

Releasing the need to measure and control outcomes is an act of trust. It frees me from the anxiety of producing results, and it gives space for God to surprise me. Sometimes the fruit appears years later, in ways I never imagined.

Scripture

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

1 Corinthians 3:6 

Ancient Quotes

Whatever we place in God’s hands is safe, for He can hold it better than we.

Teresa of Ávila, Collected Works, Vol. 1, p. 66

Modern Quotes

The ego always wants to plant seeds and harvest the same day.

Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, p. 113

The fruit of my work grows on other people’s trees.

Bob Buford, Finishing Well: What People Who Really Live Do Differently, p. 243

Journaling Prompts

• What “outcomes” in your life or ministry are you still clinging to?
  
  
• How does releasing control open you to trust God more deeply?
  
  
• Recall a time when fruit appeared from your work long after you planted the seed.
  
  
• What practices could help you work faithfully without grasping for results?

👉 Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 25 Reflection: Letting Go/Surrender