I Surrender

I Surrender

And I surrender all to thee Lord all to thee.
And I surrender all to thee all to thee…..

I always liked that song. It was easy to sing and I liked the message of making Jesus Lord of everything we do in life. We have hymns in our book which use similar language. “I surrender all” are the words to a hymn we sang often.

But my Dad never liked that kind of language. He grew up during the age of World War II. Total surrender were the terms demanded of the victors. Millions of people slaughtered, thousands of cities were destroyed. On talk radio today I hear the host proclaim we don’t have victory because we are not willing to crush the enemy. “We need to crush the enemy! We will not have peace until the enemy is crushed.” There is no choice in surrender and no open heart. It is like the child who is forced to sit down by his teacher. He says under his breath, “I may be sitting down but I am still standing up inside”. Indeed, he had surrendered.

Jesus called the disciples and they followed. They really wanted to follow. The wealthy man was asked to sell all he had and he walked away sorrowful because he was a man of great possessions. Surrender was not forced by physical coercion or persuasive salesmanship. One cannot give with a clenched fist, follow with a stubborn spirit, believe with a closed mind or love with a hard heart.

“Surrender”...... maybe there is a reason that word is not in the Bible.