Surrendering To Life

For years I misunderstood what it meant to surrender to life. My whole life I was taught that surrendering meant that you gave up or quit. It meant that you lost. I’m sure I’m not the only kid who has passionately exclaimed “Never quit, never surrender!”

As an adult, though, I’ve learned more about what surrendering actually means. It’s not a weak thing to do, in fact it’s the opposite - Surrendering is the bravest thing you can do. You release control and trust that God, the universe, or whatever higher power you believe in has your back. You allow yourself to be left weak, vulnerable, and exposed so that life can do what it wants with you.

Reading “The Surrender Experiment" by Michael Singer was an unbelievable example of this. He basically took a personal commitment to be completely unattached to what happened to him and fully allowed the winds of life to sweep him wherever they blew. He happened to land him in some pretty remarkable places with successes, impact, and synchronicities he never could have imagined.

This isn’t nearly the same but all of this came to mind when I saw a dog on a leash last week. It was a little dog, it kind of looked like a Chihuahua, and it had an attitude. A bigger dog walked past and from a sit, the Chihuahua lunged full speed toward the dog. The owner, who had the Chihuahua on a leash, was talking to someone and hardly even noticed that his dog put all of its strength into pulling him away. He kept chatting, completely undisturbed by his dog’s valiant effort. 

The reality is, the forces of the world we live in are much stronger than we are. We in many ways are the Chihuahua trying to pull things forward. We can try and try, hardly make any progress, and get frustrated by it all as we exert ourselves. The metaphor is… What if we're on a leash held by life itself? We can fight it or choose to go wherever it takes us and find joy, beauty, and meaningful things to do within that context. Which one sounds like a more peaceful life?

The classic question that comes up relates to flow vs friction. Is something hard because it’s building character, and there’s promise on the other side of a pain most people are unwilling to endure? Or is it best to follow the path of least resistance? 

It’s not an either / or and there’s a time for both, but surrendering suggests the latter. You should think about it for yourself. 

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