“Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan

Surfacing
Arista
1997

This song describes the narrator’s total surrender to God as she leaves behind her former attempts at spirituality and embraces a more radical path.

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I've left behind me is a cold room

I've crossed the last line

From where I can't return

Where every step I took in faith betrayed me

And led me from my home

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

You take me in

No questions asked

You strip away the ugliness that surrounds me

Are you an angel?

Am I already that gone?

I only hope that I won't disappoint you

When I'm down here on my knees

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

And I don't understand

By the touch of your hand

I would be the one to fall

I miss the little things

I miss everything about you

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I left behind me is a cold room

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

Interpretation

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I've left behind me is a cold room

In this stanza the narrator describes her journey out of a meaningless life (one that “doesn’t mean much” or “anything at all”). This futile life is “behind [her]”; it’s gone and now seems empty and lifeless like a “cold room”.

I've crossed the last line

From where I can't return

Where every step I took in faith betrayed me

And led me from my home

The narrator continues to convey her path. She “crossed the last line”; she has gone past the point of no return as she heads away from a life to which she “can’t return”. That old life was spiritual but “betrayed [her]” at every turn and led her “from [her] home”. Now the narrator is finally going to her real “home”.

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

The chorus is the narrator’s promise to God. All she can offer is to “surrender”, to end her striving and fall in love.

You take me in

No questions asked

You strip away the ugliness that surrounds me

This is a straightforward stanza describing the unconditional love God offers the narrator. God accepts her with “no questions asked”. In addition, God “strip[s] away the ugliness that surrounds [her]” meaning her old life melts away as her new existence begins.

Are you an angel?

Am I already that gone?

I only hope that I won't disappoint you

When I'm down here on my knees

The narrator is now experiencing ecstasy in relationship with God to the extent that she wonders if she is in heaven. She wonders if she is seeing “an angel” or maybe she’s gone crazy (she’s “already that gone”). While her old life is behind her, the narrator continues to live like she has to earn God’s approval. This is evident from the sexual imagery used in the final two lines. The narrator is not sure how to not disappoint God. Praying (“down here on my knees”) seems like not enough and so the double meaning of this phrase emerges. “Down here on my knees” evokes oral sex as a way to please a lover. The narrator struggles with trying to give God satisfaction like a lover when that is not necessary. The upcoming chorus reveals that the narrator realizes that surrender does not mean slavery but freedom.

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give

And I don't understand

By the touch of your hand

I would be the one to fall

I miss the little things

I miss everything about you

This stanza finds the narrator speaking of her amazement that God could save her (“by the touch of your hand I would be the one to fall”). This implies that the narrator was antagonistic towards God but as she is revived in God’s presence she realizes how much she missed “everything about [God]”.

It doesn't mean much

It doesn't mean anything at all

The life I left behind me is a cold room

Revisiting the first stanza, the narrator reiterates that the place she left is meaningless and lifeless.

And sweet surrender

Is all that I have to give