Control.  We KNOW what we want and we know how to get it…right down to our coffee:

“This is what I want: I want a tall, skinny, decaf, soy, vanilla latte.  Extra hot, whip cream,  double sleeve…no cup.”

In our society, control = power.

We love us some power.

We love us some control.

Grande please.

Four shots.

When life is all up to us (especially if we have had very few people -or no one- we could depend on), we depend on ourselves. Why bother with God?  Especially when we can handle it.  We’ll figure it out.  We always do.

Here’s the thing.  We may be quick on our feet, ten feet tall, bullet proof and have nine lives but we are never in complete control.  Really, and you know this, the only thing you can control is your behavior and decisions.  Typically those of us who are self-pronounced control freaks, are control freaks because of massive quantities of fear and/ or massive quantities of trauma or pain.  Since other people screw stuff up and hurt us, it’s just safer for everyone if we run this thang.

Except.

It’s not possible.  Running everything leads to being anxious, used up, worked over, and burned out.  We end up displaying signs of anxiety, stress, and fatigue:

insomnia, constantly moving body parts (bouncing knees, shaking feet, tapping fingers), increased heart rate, hypervigilance, racing or intrusive thoughts, irritability, restlessness, forgetfulness, sweating, insomnia, headaches, nausea, intestinal distress, palpitations, fatigue, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, people-pleasing, deceit, restlessness…

and that’s the short list.

We may do A LOT of things well…but we were never meant to be “little Gods”….we were designed to be “little Christs”.  That’s what the term Christian literally means: little Christs.

Christ didn’t try to run everything.  Yes, He was fully God, but He was also fully man.  He was without sin, not because of His divinity.  If that were the case we would not be able to follow in His steps.  He was without sin because in His humanity He fully leaned on God.

CHRIST WAS WITHOUT SIN BECAUSE IN HIS HUMANITY HE FULLY LEANED ON GOD.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin.  Hebrews 4:15

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.  Luke 5:16

If He left His throne to come down here and save us, perhaps it is important that we use all of the strength and courage we possess to admit that we are not in control and lean on God…like Jesus.

God never expected us to carry all of the weight we carry.

Never.

He expected us to lean on Him.  It takes more strength to be real…to let go….to trust, than it does to try to control everything because of our self-preservation defense mechanism.  Since He gave His life so we could live ours, maybe we should consider letting go of the lies of control and power to see what REAL life looks like.

Peace is waiting on the other side.

What do you think?

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Scripture taken from http://www.biblehub.com.

Videos taken from http://www.youtube.com performed by Tim Hawkins.