Control

Spring break is approaching! Only two more days of classes and I am home free. I could definitely use that time to catch up on sleep and everything else I feel I am behind in.

One really awesome thing about God that has not ceased to amaze me about throughout this past month is that whenever I feel like I need peace the most, He provides it. When I don’t know what I need, He provides it. He goes above and beyond anything that I could want from Him. He really is the God who provides.

Last time I shared how I felt God was teaching me what true selflessness was. This time I want to share about how I feel God has been teaching me to give over the things in my life I ASSUME I have control over.

During this past month, I have really been challenged to examine what in my life I have control over. It seems like a simple question at first, but when you really begin to digest it and mull over it, it becomes quite obvious that there is very little in life we have control over. If anything we have influence. Let me explain by making a list of things that I never realized I had little to no control over:

· Relationships: I cannot control how people act or react to me in the various relationships in my life. I can’t control what they say and I can’t control what they do. Sometimes we think we can change people, but, in all honesty, we have absolutely no control in that matter. It’s all up to them.

· Work: If you think you control your work then I’m gonna go ahead and just say that you are a fool. No offence meant by that, but seriously, if you really think that than you better get ready for a world of hurt. You have no control over your boss, coworkers, etc. Even if you are self-employed you don’t have any real tangible control. You are completely dependent on your customers. You can’t force them to buy your product, but you can influence them. Understand the difference.

· Family: This goes along with relationships pretty well, but you cannot control the people in your family and the stupid things they do. I’m not saying my family or even anybody else’s family is doing anything stupid (even though there are certainly people out there who feel that way), but you can’t control those loved ones close to you even if you want to. At the heart of it all, they can do something retarded regardless of how much they say they love you. The fact is that if Grandma wants to go gamble away $500 on the Riverboat every Friday night because, Lord knows, fish sandwiches are half off and you can get Bailey’s for free, then by golly you can do very little to control her. You can INFLUENCE Grandma not to go to the Riverboat and you have the ability to not ENABLE Grandma, but you cannot CONTROL Grandma (Like I said earlier, I’m not directing this directly at anybody. Just making an example….).

· Nature: I really wish I could use the words of our convo speaker today without being a dirty, heathen, sinner, but man there are times when “stuff” happens (notice the quotations) in our lives and that we have no control over. I’m not gonna assume that the people in Haiti knew that when they woke up that morning that their worlds were going to be flipped up on their heads by day’s end. Sometimes things happen that we have no control over.

That’s a pretty basic list that covers a lot, but this last one is the one that really kicked my butt. I have little to NO control over….. ME!!!

That’s right. I don’t even have control over my own life. There are things in my life that I have no control over because I cannot deal with them on my own. I am dependant on so many things just to make it through the day. And you know what, there I are SO many things that I am dependent upon God for that I don’t even recognize. It’s really mind blowing when you begin to think of it. I’d go out on a limb and say that the only things I have control over are the decisions I make. After that I’m in the hands of someone else and I certainly hope they are God’s.

I hope that is as humbling to you as it is to me.

So how do we respond to that? To me there is only one way we can respond. We acknowledge that it is all in God's hands. Most people would say that you have to give control to Christ, but I’d say that it was never yours to give because you never had it in the first place. He’s always been in control. The matter of the issue is whether you’ve acknowledged He’s in control. We can think we run our lives, but all it takes is someone (God or not) throwing something into the spokes of our wheels to throw us tipsy-turny. It’s kind of like when Indiana Jones threw the flagpole into the fat Nazi’s motorcycle spokes. We’ll blow up and tumble to a complete skidding halt and we won’t get back up again on a new bike until we realize that we ultimately have no control.

God wants to be in control of your life because He already is. We just need to acknowledge it. You see, God knows you better than you do. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it. He sees everything so infinitely clearer in our own lives than we ever could. Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the best verses in the Bible to describe this:

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

He’s already got it all figured out. He had it figured out before you were born. This quote from Steve Farrar’s book, Battle Ready, I feel really sums up how God is in control.

“He knows everything about everybody all the time… He knows the future no less than the past and present, and possible events that never happen no less than the actual events do… Nor does He have to access information about things as a computer might retrieve a file; all His knowledge is always immediately and directly before His mind.”

I don’t know about you, but I almost didn't make it to the bathroom first time I read that. I mean, my goodness, who WOULDN'T someone like that running their life? God can see all the Giants coming because He’s the trump card to all those Giants. It’s like the Staples’ Easy Button. Whenever a problem comes your way, just hit the easy button and God will come and take care of it.

Now I’m not saying that we should use God just as our crutch. What I am saying is that He DESERVES our heartfelt worship and admiration. I mean, He makes Goliath look like Tickle-Me-Elmo (Which by the way, I’m pretty sure is Satanic anyway. Seriously, every time I touch that doll I think it’s gonna say, “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, you’re funny… You’re not gonna wake up in the morning… Sorry, back to what I was saying…). Our God is so huge and powerful that the only thing I can think of doing is saying,

“God, it’s all Yours’. It was never mine. Please lead me and guide me because I have no control over my own life. I want to give you the praise and glory because only You can truly lead me.”

We’ve got an awesome God who wants to take over our problems. Just read Matthew 11:28-30. He wants us to see recognize that we have no control, because we don't. So why act why we do? We’ll feel like we have true direction when we realize that God is in CONTROL. He is never going to leave us nor forsake us.

I hope this blesses your evening. Until next time,

Dan