So you think you know what it means to surrender in recovery?

A term that gets thrown around a lot in recovery is the word surrender.

It sounds good when you say it, but do you really know what it means? Do you really know what you’re committing to? I thought surrender meant to go over to the winning side, or give up.

Come to find out, it means “to agree to the terms of peace.” Meaning, if you want peace, there is going to be terms. There may still even be consequences.

Just because I surrender, doesn’t necessarily mean I get to go home free. I’m probably still gonna have to go to jail or report to court at some point. That doesn’t sound fun!

Point is, surrender is usually followed up with some sort of commitment, task, consequence or the like. When I surrender to a life of recovery, it means that I am going to have to do some work to find and keep the PEACE.