(The following entry is one of sevql reflections I had while flying to Europe this past week).
I doubt I am the only one who likes to be in control of things. People toss around the phrase "control freak" too easily I find. Any time someone expresses a need for control or anxiety over an unclear situation, that person is often labeled a control freak. But a control freak, in my estimation, is one who cannot function in life without being the constant decision maker, and whose need for a continual "hands on" approach in day-to-day happenings is often THE driving force in that person's life. Wanting control of some part or even many parts of life does not make one a control freak - it makes fallen humans.
For myself, I find flying one of those areas where I long to have control, or at least more control. While I am well aware that me flying an airbus would be a negative experience for all parties involved, flying brings out that desire to know more, to understand more, and to be in charge. I cannot see out the front of the airplane, I cannot direct the plane which way to turn. If I knew how to read a radar and weather, I still would not have the ability or freedom to direct the plane around clouds or turbulence because I am not allowed on the flight deck. On top of all of these areas where I lack control while flying, I am also unaware of when we might hit turbulence, how long that turbulence will be tossing us around, and also to what degree I should plan on being tossed around. As you can imagine from what I've expressed here, flying is not my favorite past time but it certainly does encourage my prayer life, as well as remind me that I am never fully in control of anything in my life.
While soaring through the skies exencuates my lack of control, some reflection brought me to conclude that all of life is out of my control. For you Type-A personalities who are reading this, your visceral reaction might be to scoff, but read on. I realize there is much in life we can do that is under our control, but how often do we see how little influence we have over results? I can work out at the gym and eat right, but one wrong turn by another driver and I am in the hospital and restricted for three months to a bed. I recently spoke to a young businessman who created a legal, ingenious, and very successful method of real estate investment, only to have some of his trusted consultants break the law thus ending his career and placing him in months of court proceedings. And haven't we all seen a young person with a pure heart and a fantastic work ethic sidetracked by parents who are uninvested or over-invested in a different sibling?
James says it well. In chapter 4 of his book, he reminds us that we often speak about our plans for the future with arrogance, a attotude that says "I will go here and do this; I will set up a business here and run it for a year." James not only calls this kind of boasting and control-ownership misguided but even arrogant and evil. He informs his readers that they (and we) are merely a vapor, a mist that is here in the morning and gone with the rising of the sun. We are not, James not so subtley implies, in control.
(Ironically as I wrote out that last paragraph, we hit a patch of turbulence. While there is is no clear reason for us to be shaken about - i.e. the skies are clear - none the less we are being jostled about. But I digress...)
Paul agrees with James in speaking about his ministry. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 that while we all play our part in sowing and harvesting spiritual seeds and crops, God alone is in control to make these seeds grow. We should do all we can to create environments where God's Word can grow, but at the end of the day, the farmer needs to pray for rain and Providence.
We are not in control - God is.
How does one respond to this? We shall see in the following entries.
- tC
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