Who do you think is in control of your life? Be
honest now. Let’s see, how many of you have made any plans for what you’re
going to do today or tomorrow or next week or this winter when it’s cold and
snowy outside or maybe you’re one of those long range planning people and
you’ve already made your plans for next summer?
James talks about keeping our tongues
under control. In fact after hearing his message it sounds as if it’s almost
impossible to do. Maybe some can but there’s not many folks who haven’t said
things that the moment the words were spoken they wanted to take them back, and
then it’s too late. I imagine we’ve all been there. I know I have; more times
than I’d like to admit.
So, the question for us today is, what
do we do? The answer, my friends, is in the gospel lesson from Mark. What was
it Jesus said? “Anyone who intends to come with me has
to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am… Follow
me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all.”
That’s the answer to our dilemma. We
keep thinking we’re the ones in control, of our lives, our destinies, our
families, our careers, and we keep mucking it up. There are so many examples in
life that we could look at.
For example, riding a bicycle, we try
and we try and it’s when we finally relax and just kind of let it all balance
itself out that the riding becomes easy, almost second nature. We can jump on
and go without thinking about how it’s staying upright.
Swimming’s another example. We can’t
even float until we learn to let go of the tension in our muscles and relax. We
have to believe that the water can support us. We have to have faith that we
won’t sink like a rock when we give control to the water.
Life is easier and we are less anxious
when we let go of the reins and let the One who’s really got the plan take
over. But how do we do that? How to get our fingers pried off the steering
wheel or the handle bars or the tiller? How can we know for sure that that’s
the best thing for us?
Well, it goes back to what I said
earlier, we have to believe that following Jesus’ lead is the right thing to
do. We have to have faith that he really is the One in control. We have to
trust what we can’t see. The first step is ours. We have to make the decision that
that’s what we’re going to do. We have to let go first and let Jesus lead.
The problem we all have is we like being
in control. We like being the ones making the decisions…and we are afraid that
following Jesus is going to be painful. After all he does mention suffering and
sacrifice and we don’t like the sound of those words. We don’t like pain and we
can’t imagine living without our things.
Is that what He meant? What do you
think? Do we have to live like our brothers and sisters who own nothing and
live in rooms with just the bare necessities? Is Jesus saying that we have to
cash in our retirement accounts and use them to buy food and clothes and
shelter for the least of these? What do you think?
Friends, I think it comes back to the
first question, “What controls our lives? What or who controls our decisions?
Those are the questions we have to answer for ourselves.
I don’t think we’re going to arrive at
an answer or a solution to our questions here today. This is something that we
need to spend some time with and listen for God’s voice to direct us.
As I said the first step is ours to
take. After that, after we’ve invited Jesus into our hearts, then we can begin
to relax the tension and get on with the work God has called us to.
Friends, it’s still not easy but God
never promised that our lives would be easy. It’s the reward that’s waiting for us on the
other side that we’re striving for, eternal life with our Savior, Jesus, the
Christ.
Maybe that’s hard for us to imagine
but God and his omnipotence is too much for us to get our heads around so what
makes us think that we can begin to imagine what eternity with God will be
like.
As Jesus and James told us today it’s
all about control, us letting go and Jesus taking over. May it be so.
Thanks
be to God for his patient grace. Amen.
