commonalities

I have much to say most of the time, as those around me know all too well. I find our Christian dialect (if you will) to be rather amusing and saddening all at the same time. We flippantly throw around words as though people understand what we're trying to say or else we don't consider the full magnitude of the words we are actually uttering. One such example is the commonly bandaided phrase "God is in control". Now if you've had a serious conversation with me in the past few months I would almost undoubtebly imagine that you heard these piercing words come out of my mouth, but let me explain to you my perdicament. At different points during my day God chooses to unload (yet again- if you will) His meanings of things on me and for that moment I am stunned by the truth of the matter. Tonight was one such occassion. I've struggled a great deal with this concept of "God is in control." Yes, God is sovereign so we could sum up that He is in control over all things, sure. But think about it- Control over ALL things? Control over Katrina destroying so many homes, control over heartache and famine, control over my every thought, word or action, control over what the weather will be like today, control over what I'll write in this blog, control over what time I'll actually get out of bed in the morning, utter control? Now don't hear me wrong, our God is not a dictator, but does He truly have control?

But then I stop in my tracks, that often get far too deep and have a hard time turning back, to find that maybe that's not what our focus should be. Maybe instead of looking at it from such a sceptical viewpoint I should look at it from the perspective "what would life look like if God was in control?" How freeing ya'll! Think about, all those screwups and times you "missed your opportunity to share the gospel", all those terrible sins you've committed (terrible is not meant to rate the particular sin but to merely point out that all sin is terrible), all those discouragements and what we think of as "setbacks". Over ALL of those things, GOD IS IN CONTROL! How utterly freeing to realize we don't have to worry about anything past, present or future because God will provide. Maybe we can start here and then see the bigger picture of His control over disaster, famine, and other heartache. Maybe we can be freed here and see His great compassionate, loving plan of control and then find His control in the sad times. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything present your requests to God who sustains you." Now, hold on a second, big disclaimer- If I truly had enough room to discuss such a broad topic as this I would do so, but I don't. To proclaim such a dangerous idea as I have just discussed could throw some into a sense of oversecurity and flippancy towards our actions on this earth, but God is JUDGE remember. By abiding in God we realize His control and by staying at home in Him we are freed from guilt and worry. Amazing.

I just think we so often hear concepts such as "God is in control" and we don't weigh them to find if they stand on their own. We don't sit and consider their full meaning and what exactly comes along with them. If we truly sat down and thought about things, so many of our Christian concepts don't work or intertwine. it's interesting really, and fairly obvious why our modern church is not the church of Acts. One such being the lack of true belief in our Bible......I'm not sure why I just chose to leave you with that because I have not intention of continuing that opinion tonight.. toon in next time!