Today as I blog I want to talk a bit about expectation two. That I have control over situations and the things that happen to me.
I like a degree of order in my life. I like things done a certain way. This need and desire to do things a certain way became evident when I lived with roommates, and got married. We all have them. Habits and a view of how things are supposed to be. Then someone or something breaks up the illusion that we had that we would live in a un interrupted state of doing what we like to do.
Perhaps we thought because we exercised we could stave off cancer.
That by doing everything we are supposed to as Christians good things exclusively would be our lot in life?
Perhaps someone hurt us and we experienced helpless due to a broken relationship, illness or violence. Perhaps we thought by working with our company for the number of years we have, that we would be immune to the cut back.
What I have come to accept is that I am NOT in control. I recently thought about the passengers who were on that train that crashed in Spain. None of them were in control of what happened to them. A conductor that most if not all didn’t know made a decision that ended their lives.
I’m a good driver. But I can’t control the multitude of drivers who seek to barge in and out of traffic during rush hour. I was at a public event recently, and I realized that I was suspect to many a germ due to the habits of others.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we can’t influence or yes even control some things. Nor am I saying that we should be afraid of what we can’t control. Only that we live soberly in the reality that we live in a world of interdepence where we rely on others for simple things.
Electricity, food, the well-being of our employers to maintain their companies and a host of other relationships for us to function.
It’s been said that life is 90% of what happens to me and 10% of how I react to it.
How much of our life do we spend trying to manipulate the circumstances around us, of friends, family and others all so that they might conform to the illusion of how we think they should be? Control can be a fatiguing thing when we are always trying to manipulate the environment and others to conform to what we want. When Jesus says take my yoke upon you perhaps he’s talking to all of us who like to strive so hard to tame the uncontrollable in our lives?
I think one of the best scriptures that capture this is James 4:14
“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
What control does a vapour have?
Something to think about.