Surrender

On an email loop, a person said, "When I ask someone who is not in program what is meant by surrender, the answer is usually that it is a negative word. It equates with quitting, giving up, being beaten and so on. What is the meaning of surrender in program?"

What a question! What a perfect question for me to encounter this morning. Here's what I wrote:

Surrender. Release. Surrendering your heavy burdens, relying on the promise that God will not give you something too heavy to carry. Finding out what is really meant by, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Surrender is a freedom beyond belief, a peace that passes all understanding. Surrender is serenity, joy, release. Surrender is the life I want to never let go of now that it finally has found me.

Clint H on tapes available through xa-speakers.org talks about the difficulty of talking to soldiers about surrender but the excellent word picture that came from the experience. When a soldier surrenders, he lays the weapon down, sits down, and waits to be told what to do. He doesn't look at the weapon, doesn't touch it, doesn't initiate any action, he simply waits. The difference, with surrender under the 12 steps, is that the emptiness and defeat may feel the same, but the benevolence and love that are the orders make it the most wonderful event in a lifetime. I surrender.