It's fragile isn't it?
This week I was talking to someone who is struggling through a rough patch. I noticed how much of the problem is caused by a desire to control ones own circumstances. But it's all an illusion. We don't really control anything, except perhaps our choice of reaction. Things happen that are so outside our control that it's almost laughable that we could ever even imagine we have control even for a moment.
I always watch the news, especially Hollywood news, and I was surprised to hear they were covering a story about Natasha Richardson who, by all accounts, suffered a very minor accident. But tonight, they reported she has passed away. A freak accident on the bunny slope. It is tragic and sad. Completely beyond her control... beyond even the control of the physicians attending her.
Another friend is applying to Universities, but seems to have been living too long elsewhere to still be considered in State.
We have a several students moving on, and now wonder the direction the school will take. What the future holds is not within our control.
None of us knows with certainty the days marked out for us.
Knowing this... what is my role? How, now, shall I live to make the most of each moment. I was reading through an excerpt with one of my students, "Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson. In it, Markheim, asks a miserable looking shop keep, why do you not live? Why don't you treat each second as a fiery precipice? You have no friends, you spend your holiday alone reviewing your bookkeeping. There is no life in that living. Take a chance, stand on the edge...
It's so easy to "take control". It's so safe. Or at least that is the illusion. I don't want to live this way, but I realize that more and more the last few years I have allowed myself to be controlled and managed by my culture. I have been seeking out a living, I have been saving my monies, I have worked hard, and taken time for myself... and I have become a product of that. It has become a much greater effort to abandon myself to God. It has become harder to give joyfully without counting "the cost".
But in the span of eternity, what does it gain me.
What am I really in control of? Whether or not I die to myself daily. Life is really to short, to not live with eternity in mind. The only way to live in a way that effects eternity, is to abandon my life to God, the one who has created time and eternity, the one who has created me and knows just what I am fitted for. The only one who can direct my life in a way that has maximum effect.
You want to talk about control - He's got it.
There is a verse... that says that he keeps everything in place... He sustains all of creation by His Word.
There is nothing that happens that God is unaware of. Not one sparrow falls to the ground that he doesn't know of. He knows every hair on our heads. He searches us out. There is no where we can go that He is not there.... Before we took our first breath He knew us... all of whom we would be.
Knowing this, (and liking the feeling of some sort of control) why would I live a life in any way separated from the one who knows what's next. The one who can change hearts and lives. Why would I let my lazy or selfish pursuits put up barriers between us?
I am so glad that despite the fact that I can be... have been, at times unfaithful... God is always faithful. Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. (Rom 3:3,4)
"But now, God shows us a way to be made right with Him.....
.... by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Jesus Christ when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.
Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith...." Romans 3
Father, help me to abandon myself to you. Thank you for saving me, I pray that you give me the strength to accept the abundant life you have for me. Forgive me for trying to take control away from you... it is so proud and so foolish. I pray that I will really live, and not waste this precious time you have given me. Father, please do bless those that have become aware this week of their lack of control. I pray that they will soften their hearts towards you. That they will accept you and the good plans that you have for them. Plans to prosper and not to harm... plans to give them a future and a hope. Father please be their peace, when life feels like it's falling to pieces. Surround them with the warm and inviting light of your love. Please Father, I pray that though some may try and whisper lies, they will see the truth of Your word... in Your Word made flesh.
Be'shem Yeshua, Amen!
