Surrender Can Be a Good Thing

Do you remember the R.E.M. song, "Everybody Hurts"? Some of the lyrics are as follows...

"Everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends. Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand. If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone"

I've always concluded that when Michael Stipe counsels his listeners not to throw their hands he means, "Don't give in to this pain." Good advice and when this song came out in the early '90's it was just the sort of instruction I needed.

Lately though, I've been pondering the lyrics of a song a friend of mine wrote a few years ago called, "Grace". In this song Jeff speaks of something much different than Michael Stipe but they both use similar phrases. Jeff says, "Remove the stain and I stand and throw my hands and give you all that I am..." Mr. Stipe says, "Don't throw your hand."

Both songs speak of surrender. One says "don't surrender to the pain" and the other says "I chose to surrender to God".

Fifteen years and a conversion to Christianity after I heard the first song I can now add to the original good advice "go ahead and throw your hands... not in surrender to pain and depression but in surrender to God, and let him help you deal with and work through your pain."