A Spring of Joy

Yesterday I dropped my son off for school. He ran up the steps with his friends, turned to grin and sign, “I love you”, then he was gone. He didn’t need my hand to hold or my feet to walk with him to his room. He was taking those steps of independence that I want him to take but that create a vacuous ache within me. I cried the whole way home.

When Courtney brought him home after school, my buddy walked in the door with a scrape marring his entire forehead. He had fallen off the monkey bars face first onto the ground during recess. He grinned impishly and said, “But my teacher took really good care of me.” I hugged him, sent him on his way to change into his playclothes, then sat and cried again. Someone else was caring for the boo-boos that came in his life. The hands that hold my child so tightly were unclasping yet again.

Although I have felt it poignantly this week, this whole past year of my life has been about one thing. Relinquishing life to another. Surrendering my heart, soul, being, and life to the hands that molded my jar of clay into the broken vessel that He desires I be.

I: No one else can do it for me.

Surrender: To relinquish. To yield. To give power and possession to another.

All: The whole of. The greatest possible. Everything.

Shortly before he wrote the hymn, I Surrender All, J. W. Van De Venter wrote these words: “God had hidden a song in my heart, and a touching chord He caused me to sing, songs I had never sung before.”

God has touched that same chord in my life as I have learned what worship truly is–surrendering my heart to Him daily in order that He may receive the glory. And while I am singing songs I have sung for years, I am singing them in ways I have never sung before.

Caedmon’s Call rewrote the tune to I Surrender All and added a bridge. This has been my anthem for the past few weeks as Bri and I have sung it together with friends. My favorite line? I will EVER love and trust Him.

As Simon Peter said, “To whom else should we go?”

All to Jesus, I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever, love and trust Him
In His presence daily live

I surrender all,
I surrender all
all to Thee my precious Lord
I surrender all

All to Jesus, I surrender
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly treasures all forsaken
Take me Jesus, take me now,

I surrender all,
I surrender all
all to Thee my precious Lord
I surrender all

When I lie in anguish
On the strong attack
And I lay my burdens
On my Savior’s back
I surrender, I surrender all,

All to Jesus, I surrender
Lord I give myself to Thee
Let me feel Thee, Holy Spirit
Let Your blessing fall on me

I surrender all,
I surrender all
all to Thee my precious Lord
I surrender all

I pray you can go to Him now and find yourself filled as you surrender your all.