Sweet Surrender

Old 04-02-2009, 06:16 AM
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Sweet Surrender

From 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact by Melody Beattie:

So we're ready to take on the world, at least to take the next step. That's when it hits. Or rather we hit it.

The wall.

Suddenly the path that looked so clear, so easy, so laid out in front of us disappears. "Just a little glitch," we think. We take another run at it.

It's still there.

"Must be me," we think. "I'll try a little harder. Get this problem under control." We may mumble a few words to a Higher Power, something about needing help, but essentially we're praying for enough steam to ram into and run through that wall, sometimes chanting the matra "My will be done" all the way.

I wish I could tell you there is a way to avaoid this wall-banging, head-bumping vortex of chaos, but if there is, I haven't found it.

It's a dirty dust devil of self-will.

Hearing that we are powerless over people, places, and things (such as alcohol and other drugs) -- intellectually understading that concept -- is one thing. Experiencing powerlessness is another.

I didn't surrender to my powerlessness over alcohol and drugs because I wanted to. I surrendered because I had to, because I was worn out, because I couldn't keep going anymore. I went down hard.

I finally surrendered to my inability to control the alcoholism of someone I loved, not because it seemed like the right thing to do. It was the only thing left to do.

I didn't surrender to my son's death because I wanted to. I had no choice.

When I first learned about surrendering, it seemed impossible. Now, when I'm not in the surrendered place, it still seems foreign and faraway.

One morning, a friend called to see whether I had solved a problem I was struggling with.

"Yup," I said. "I told God last night that whatever happened was okay with me, I was willing to do whatever he wanted. And I meant it."

"Oh that," she said gently. "Sweet Surrender."

"Yeah," I said. "It's sweet...now."

Surrender. The place that those of us on a spiritual path call home.

Not only is it sweet, there's no place like it, as Dorothy told us in The Wizard of Oz.

Value: Whether we call it surrending control, surrendering to God's Will, getting out of our own way, powerlessness, or running out of ourselves, that's this week's value.
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Old 04-02-2009, 06:19 AM
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Application: Surrender is a helpful value to practice daily. Whenever we tell ourselves we should be able to do something and we can't, whenever we're giving ourselves a headache from spinning our wheels trying to figure something out and we can't, it may be time to officially wave the white flag. If we find ourselves urgently trying to make something happen by sheer will, surrender may the the value we need to apply.
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Old 04-02-2009, 06:48 AM
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I gave myself a lot of headaches before I got to that sweet surrender!

Thanks for the reminder, Barb! :ghug
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Old 04-02-2009, 06:56 AM
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Thank you......you are the messenger of my HP today!!
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Old 04-02-2009, 07:03 AM
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I need to learn and relearn sweet surrender all the time. I know that when ever I get stressed out, I have moved out of surrender and into self will. Self will never works out for me. Surrender always does.

I figure this lesson applies to so many of us I had to share it.
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Old 04-02-2009, 07:45 AM
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Thank you Barbara! Sometimes I get confused on the surrender issue. I am a very driven person and I feel that surrendering is.....well.....lazy! lol I have to SEPARATE surrender from drive to accomplish. It's two very different things. That is what I have to remind myself over and over again. Pouring that energy that I waste on trying to control the things that I cannot control....into the things that I CAN control.

Surrender.......it falls into that category of "the wisdom to know the difference".

Thanks for a great inspirational post this morning!

gentle hugs
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