Sur-ren-der!

This is a page or two out of one of my favorite books "The Trouble with Tulip" It's by Mindy Starns Clark and is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!
The message in it is amazing, and I just felt like posting part of it;
(The context is that Danny (a struggling photographer and the drummer of "Regeneration", a band his family put together) has just finished a show at a church, and made only $43 in Love Offering money. He also has realized that he really loves Jo Tulip, his childhood best friend, but she doesn't love him back in the same way...)

Aggravated, Danny told his family goodbye and climbed into his car. Before he could pull out of his parking space, however, the passenger door opened and his mother plopped down into the seat next to him.
"Wait a minute, Danny," She said. "I need to talk to you."
"What is it, Ma? I have to get to work."
"What's going on?" She asked. "You seem upset"
He put the car in park, hesitated, and turned off the key. It was a cloudy day, dark and oppressive, and he wondered if his life would always be like this --- lots of hard work for very little money and some big dreams that were never going to come true.
"How do you do it, Ma?" he asked her. "How do you collect the penny-ante love offerings when you know what our shows are really worth? How do you keep plugging away with the band when you know that your goals and dreams are never going to come true?"
That was probably more than she had expected to hear, Danny realized. But he was tired and frustrated, from the situation with Jo to his career as a photographer. Soon, something somewhere was going to have to give.
"You're right," his mother said softly. "I did have big dreams when I was younger. I just had to rethink things, is all."
"Rethink things? How do you reconcile your desire to be a big music star with the knowledge that you just made forty-three dollars from a morning's worth of talent and hard work? It's crazy."
"Yeah, it is." she admitted. "I guess I just tell myself that the Lord knows what He's doing. Maybe you need to surrender."
"But how?" Danny demanded. "How do you surrender something you want with every fiber of your being? How do you give something over to God's control when you still have to spend every waking moment trying to make it happen for yourself?"
She exhaled slowly, reached out, and patted his hand.
"Ah, Danny," She said. "it's so hard to explain. Part of the peace I have comes from knowing that God is using me, no matter how limited the fashion. Given the choice, I would rather have performed this morning for an audience of thousands. But today God put me up in front of about sixty women, and so that's what I did instead. Hopefully, a song we sang or a story we shared touched someone in there in ways we cant ever understand. Don't you see? That's much bigger than anything I might have planned because that's letting God use me for His purposes."
Danny closed his eyes, wondering if he could ever be as surrendered as she was.
"But why would God give met he desire to be a professional photographer if He wasn't going to let that dream come true?" He asked softly.
"You are a professional photographer, Danny."
He shook his head.
"You know what I mean. I want the big leagues, Ma, the Scene Its and the National Geographics and the recognition and the respect. Do you know how hard it is to snap pictures of drooling babies all day and pretend I'm making some kind of art?"
"You're touching people's lives honey. Can't that be enough?"
Touching people's lives. Danny thought of the kid in the wheelchair and how he had stood up to the boy's mother. Maybe in some small way, he was doing some good in the world. But what about doing good for himself, for his career?
"As a man I can't let this go." he said slowly. "My dreams are juts to big. Too important to me."
He expected her to sympathize. Instead she simply pursed her lips and then opened the door.
"You need to surrender your ambitions," she said. "And while you're at it, you need to surrender your relationsip with Jo as well."
He looked at her, surprised that she knew.
"What?" she asked. "You didn't think your sisters would tell me? Like they had to? I've known for a long time."
He had to laugh, hating that the women in his life seemed to know him better than he knew himself.
"What if I tell her I love her and she says she doesn't love me back?" he whispered.
"Sur-ren-der, Danny," his mother replied slowly. "God will work it out." Then she climbed out of the car and got into her own and drove away, leaving him there in the parking lot alone.

(The Trouble with Tulip pp. 257-259)