Song Review: Surrender by Jeremy Camp
By Daniel Gordon Ang, 20, Indonesia
Surrender is a special word. Most of us have a vague agreement on what it means and entails, but we might have different feelings about actually doing it. For those of us who were perhaps raised in a Christian household and environment, or have been spiritually stagnant for some time, surrender may be one of the most difficult things to do. Many of us are willing to go to church every week, sing during worship, and even pray every day, but who has a true desire to totally surrender to God, actively breaking our bad sinful habits and entrusting every single bit of our lives to His will instead of ours?
It is at this point that Jeremy Camp’s “Surrender” inspires me. For him, surrender is not a burden. Instead, it is the most desirable thing to do, as the songwriter is “tired of living life a fool.” It is motivated by the realization of the filthiness of our souls and the hopelessness of life apart from Him, that we are instantly moved to “worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness” (Psalm 96:9). And there is the fact that God will bring “unending love and grace” and “eternal hope and peace”, so what can be more desirable? Hence we understand why it can be repeatedly said with a strong sense of sureness and longing: “And I surrender, and I surrender, and I surrender now.”
But is it easy? Surely not. And this song, contrary to the initial impressions of its enthusiasm, doesn’t make a pretense that surrender is the easiest thing to do. It is perhaps the easiest decision to do, but to actually live out that decision is beyond human capability. That is why the song is a prayer: “Soften up this heart in clay, to be a servant I pray.” This is the prayer that we must all pray, for God to help us to fully surrender ourselves to become “slaves of God” (Romans 6:22), and that we can really “make my heart Your home—God is inside.”
Surrender will most likely never be achieved in an instant. It is already difficult to fully trust God’s hand to shape every aspect of our lives, and even more difficult to rid ourselves of every bad sinful habit. But we have to make sure that the process continues throughout our lives. And so, perhaps we can begin with one simple step—to “cast all [our] anxieties on Him because He cares for [us]” (1 Peter 5:7).
Watch Jeremy’s personal sharing of the inspiration and meaning behind this song here!
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