Surrender

Surrender.

My dictionary (Webster's Third New International, Unabridged) devotes three column-inches to the definition of surrender. The definitions vary on these themes:
to yield;
to give in;
to give up;
to abandon, resign or relinquish possession or control;
to give over to an influence;
to devote oneself entirely without restraint, reservation, or further resistance;
to relinquish.
More at Render.

Oh my. Isn't that list almost un-American? Never Surrender! is the slogan, right? I hear it in terms of war, in terms of earning a living, in terms of the push for forever-youth. None of the definitions say "to accept defeat," but it's woven through the notion of surrender.

Yet it's the word that came to me first when I was asked to say, without thinking, what would be my prayer for myself. Surrender to what exists in any given present moment.

What might that mean? What does the balanced life look like that includes the element of surrender? What value or good do I give up in order to gain what other value or good?

I give up money for all sorts of goods and services, just like you; we could make a list.
I give up the thrills and joys of travel for the joys and comforts of home.
I give up chasing the latest fashion for the individual flair of knowing my own style.

My Christian background includes the word surrender, so I looked in Cruden's Concordance. Surrender is not there, but render and its variation has a lengthy list, too long to explore here and now, and too murky in my thinking, as well. My present spiritual searching and practice, though, includes meditations on and around the applied meanings and ideas of surrender.

How do you understand surrender?