Sand slipping through our fingers, slithering away, disregarding the holder.
A Balloon floats away, narrowly avoiding every attempt of the owner to pull it back to earth, until it is absorbed into eternal blue.
The Sun sets, despite protesters begging time not to leave as the hours quickly vanish into the darkness.
Everyone has had those moments. When something unexpected happens to throw the comfortable sense of reality we have built around ourselves to the ground. An uncomfortable reminder of the truth of our humanity... the truth that everyone knows but wants to forget. As hard as we may try, the simple truth of the matter is:
We can't control anything that happens in these lives of ours.
The best we can hope for is to influence events in our favor. We can control how we behave and decisions we make, but in reality, we're really just feathers blown about by the wind, choosing only how we react to life as it happens.
Sometimes bad things happen that are absolutely out of our control. Financial investments fall through due to unforeseen circumstances. Close, trusted ones violate trust and cause pain, though completely unprovoked. Loved ones pass away despite perfect health the day beforehand. Humanity's lack of control is a fact buried deep in the core of our existence.
This reality will, ultimately, demand to meet us at some point in our fragile lives.
However, despite the weight of this truth that we so often try to hide from, there is a greater reality still that must be looked at in these times.
Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God"
Though we lack control, that does not mean that the universe has no control or that no one controls it. In fact, control has been woven deeply into the fabric of reality, but it is not humanity that holds it. In times when things slip out of our control, we can look to the deeper truth that we serve a God who does have control in his hands.
Though it may be hard to see or understand why something slips out of our control, the proper response, the only real response, is to be still and let God be God.
Humanity is our lot in life.
Control will never be in reach.
Trust will.
In whatever season of life you are in, may you meet reality's challenge for control with the deeper truth in where real control lies.
Be still, and know that he is God.
This message is encouraging because it says God is sovereign in a seemingly chaotic world. Situations sometimes seem like that floating balloon--untied, carelessly drifting, unheld. Yet if God is in control, then we ARE being held, and our direction, though impacted by our motivations and decisions, is still guarded by God's wisdom. Thanks, David.
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