In the past, I’ve read, heard and seen people talk about how religious people don’t live life to the fullest. How they don’t experience all there is to offer on this beautiful earth. Believers are too caught up focusing on the next life and too busy trying to please God that they forget to enjoy what is right in front of them. In my eyes, this is a gross generalisation and for many adherents of numerous faiths, couldn’t be further from the truth.

In multiple religious traditions, and in particular the Abrahamic faiths as well as Hinduism, Taoism and even New Age movements, there is an emphasis placed on having faith in God and the universe. Now, it should be noted that faith has never really historically meant a blind faith for which it is often associated today, but rather it should be understood as trust. Indeed, the very word faith has historical roots in the Latin word fides, meaning to trust.

It’s quite apparent that there’s a big difference between trust and blind faith. Trust is built on experience and reasoning, whereas blind faith is exactly that: an adherence and acceptance of something without questioning it, regardless of the consequences. In the context of a belief in God (or however you want to label it), trust is built by firstly taking a bit of a leap, an experiment maybe conducted over a stretch of time. And if it’s successful, the experience allows you to hand your fate over to God more and more. Not too different to trusting a person, although maybe a bit scarier at first.

This trust can be considered an act of surrender. The meaning of Islam is exactly this. Surrender doesn’t mean that you become a slave to God, but instead you put your trust in God to take care of your life. In Taoism, one is encouraged to put your trust in the Tao, surrender yourself to it, and let it work through you, so that you become more in tune with it. In various New Age spiritualities, an emphasis is placed on trusting in the universe, and by doing so, you will receive what you need at the right time. I can’t help but draw parallels to Christianity with the stories of Saints and everyday believers, who place their trust in God to take care of them and allow the Holy Spirit to work through them.

How is surrender defined in this context? It doesn’t mean just giving up, but is more a matter of the ego, the limited sense of separateness that we have, that sense of “I”. True surrender is an act that makes you bigger than you originally were. It means you relax and stop trying to control everything that goes on in your life. Instead you accept things the way they are, simply letting things be, and allow God and the universe to do its workings.

This doesn’t mean you lose individual responsibility, can act however you want, and become prone to doing nothing about your conditions. Instead, realising your limitations and placing trust in God will paradoxically free up space, allow you to realise the potential of being, and will direct you to the place you really need to go. And this will almost naturally shape your own character and well-being. By trusting in God and surrendering your ego, it will allow more divine light to fill the vacating space, and you won’t be so concerned about self-preservation. As a result, you’ll be more willing to take risks, and help others without concerns of receiving immediate rewards.

Importantly, trusting in God has a lot to do with abandoning anxieties for the future and fears based on experience in the past. It requires a lot more emphasis on living in the present, the eternal Now that we are constantly living in, where the divine can truly be felt. Your past shapes how you perceive what steps to take in the future, in itself limiting your options and potential. Whereas constantly worrying about how things will be in the future are just going to bind you, prevent you from enjoying your life right now. Constant anxiety perhaps even stops you from pursuing what you need to do to reach the future you want in the first place! Being a bit more present, taps you more into reality as it is, and helps you develop a trusting relationship with God, seeing as though you’re allowing the divine to shape your destiny.

Admittedly, this giving up total control of everything in your life is difficult unless you have a strong belief in something greater than just the material universe. I can testify to this, I was an atheist for most of my life until about five or six years ago. And I was very anxiety ridden, filled with constant concerns for what I wanted to do in the future. I worked endlessly to try and fulfill these goals that I thought I wanted, and was terrified of the prospect of not being able to achieve them. This stopped me from realising the beauty of just simply living life in a more present way. It didn’t make me happy, it didn’t make me a better person, I was just too busy working towards some non-existent future. This is a story for another time, but I slowly became more interested in spirituality and gradually developed a strong belief in a loving God and that the universe was divine (including myself). As a result, a concern for death and the future became less of a factor.

I started to trust in the divine more and more, and countless opportunities started appearing for me. I also realised my early goals weren’t what I wanted in life. A trust in God, gave me the courage to simply jump into the unknown, and I just knew in my heart that things would work out for the best. And in the end, it has. I traveled around India and Nepal without planning much; ended up doing jobs that I quite loved; discovered and pursued a passion for writing that was always hidden a little bit below the surface; found myself teaching English in China; and of course, I found the love of my life. For me, the results of trusting in God and the universe speaks for itself.

I wrote this piece today because my partner is going through quite a stressful time, most of it to do with our future plans over the next year and whether she can achieve them. She asked me at one point, “how can you not be so worried about all of this?” So I guess this post is in part an answer to her question, and I hope she finds something of value in it that can ease her suffering, even if it’s just a little bit.