Surrender, Sacrifice, Vodka & Orange Juice

What Spirit taught me about worthiness

Many are taught at a very early age that both surrender and sacrifice are necessary to “earn our place in heaven”. If you don’t, when you pass on, you get to go downstairs. 😉

The dictionary defines surrender as:
To yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand.

Sacrifice is:
The act of giving up something highly valued for the sake of something else considered to have a greater value or claim.

Even now, some spiritual teachers talk about these as if they believe you cannot ascend unless you are willing to surrender and get rid of the ego. And you must sacrifice your morning coffee, become vegan, meditate, abstain from any mind altering substances.

I know of one teacher who said that you will never ascend if you are not willing to meditate 8 hours every day. Personally, I am good for about 15 minutes of quietly spending time in my garden, before I begin brainstorming my next idea. 😉

Now, I am not saying that everyone feels like this, but I do hear it often enough. And I don’t believe there is anything wrong with any of that. It’s just not for me.

I believe if you want to know the truth, you have to go within yourself and see how it feels. You are the best judge of what is good for you.

For me, I think of surrender as more like embrace:
“to accept or adopt something willingly or eagerly”.

My own guidance says that nobody asked me to come into this life to give up my power to anyone else. I am not here to sacrifice anything for the sake of anyone or any deity. And I certainly was not asked to sit silently for hours at a time.

In fact, one day I received a response that made me laugh:

That probably sounds oddly specific. The reason is that my “Uncle-Daddy” and I used to sit together watching John Wayne movies. I was never a huge fan, but we enjoyed the time together. The message wasn’t really about John Wayne. It was about worthiness. I didn’t have to earn my existence by becoming a “better” spiritual person.

All that was requested was that I show up. Of course, I had some plans, but they were not orders. They were experiences I wanted to have.

I believe our intuitive filter is only as clear as we are. Yes, some people are very sensitive to the foods and drinks they consume. But we are all different, and this is the planet of free will. We each get to choose how we live our lives.

For me, that means it really was enough that I was born.

Everything else is simply how I choose to experience this amazing adventure.

Maybe surrender isn’t about giving away our power after all. Maybe it’s about letting go of the belief that we have to earn our worthiness.

And perhaps the greatest thing we can surrender is the idea that Spirit is keeping score. 💖💖💖