Let’s talk for a minute about control.
We have this one life. Just this one here on earth. The
world tells us: make it count! Follow your heart! Achieve your dreams!
And yet so little of life is actually in our control. In
fact, if you really chase this rabbit trail of thought, we can easily see how
the fact that we are alive, breathing, thinking, rational creatures has very
little to do with US. I could get in my car, drive down the road, and my life
could literally all be over. (And good morning to YOU too!) When you look at
life in this way, the fact that my lungs are filling with air, converting
Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen and then releasing Carbon Dioxide into the
atmosphere is truly miraculous!
So if I literally cannot control this life force that is within
me, what can I control?
My response to
life’s delights, hiccups, or tragedies.
This is not to say that we should live reactively or that we
should not have some agency in our life’s direction. What I mean, instead, is what so many wise people have shared with me this year:
We
are not responsible for the outcome, we are only responsible for our
faithfulness to God’s call.
This is so freeing.
We don’t have to be afraid of failure or tragedy! Hardship will come no
matter how meticulously we try to control our environment – great workers get
fired; great husbands lose their wives; great athletes get injured; great
nations experience famine; great artists fail to receive the recognition their
work deserves.
Fear of these things cannot and should not stop us from living
freely. Don’t expect an easy life – but expect a FULL life, trusting the Lord’s
provision for us. After all, this life is so fleeting - we have a better, fuller, freer, more glorious life waiting for us. There, according to Revelation 21:4, Jesus will
wipe away every tear…
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are
wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and
momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs
them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since
what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians
4:16-18
