Sunday Afternoon: I Surrender*

From: Deep Is The Hunger by Howard Thurman, 1979

(*found in A Sourcebook About Sunday, Compiled by Paul F. Ford, Mary Ellen Hynes, J. Michael Thompson, art by, Julie Lineman)

My ego is like a fortress.

I have built its walls stone by stone

to hold out the invasion of the love of God.

But I have stayed here long enough.

There is light

over the Barriers.  O My God-

The darkness of my house forgive

and overtake my soul.

I relax the barriers.

I abandon all that I think I am,

all that I hope to be,

all that I believe I possess.

I let go of the past,

I withdraw my grasping hand from the future,

and in the great silence of this moment,

I alertly rest my soul.

as the sea gull lays in the wind current,

So I lay myself in the spirit of God.

My dearest human relationships,

My most precious dreams,

I surrender to His care.

All that I have called my own 

I give back.  All my favorite things

Which I would withhold in my storehouse

from his fearful tyranny,

I let go.

I give myself 

Unto thee, O my God.