Remote Controlled Life

A few years ago, some good friends gave us the gift of Tivo.  Tivo changed the way we watch TV.  In the little amount of time we have to sit down and watch a show, we no longer have to settle for the junk that is currently on, or mess with VHS tapes.  I simply hit record for a particular show before it starts, and then I watch it when I want to.  I am in control. Speaking of control - the remote for Tivo is incredible.  You can pause, fast forward, rewind, and even go into slow motion with this thing.  When watching a football game, the Tivo remote gives me the capability to find out if a pass play really was a completion or not well before the officials. 

There is something dangerously compelling about control.  Once you taste it, it's hard to rely on anyone or anything else -and why would we?  If it is possible to simply choose a plan, do it the way we want, and get the results we want - why would we ever do anything different?  This is, in fact, what a lot of us try to do.  We do what we want, the way we want it done, but when we don't get the results we want everything falls apart.  We find out that maybe we aren't in control after all, and we hate it.

-We spend months trying to sell a house, or find a job, or reaching out to unsaved family members, and no matter what we do - we don't get what we want.

One of the most important passages of Scripture for me in the past few years comes from the book of James.  The author writes...

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.' (James 4:13 - 15, NASB)

The obvious message here is that we should seek God's plan instead of own, but it also teaches us something about disappointment.

Most, if not all, of our disappointments come from our own unmet expectations.  Of course there are times when we fail God, or family, or friends and we need seek forgiveness.  BUT, a lot  of our disappointment comes because we have this terrible compulsion to be in control - and we're not. 

I just re-read a part of a book where the author talks about this very thing.  He says: "I want desperately for things to go 'how they're supposed to.'  Which is another way of saying 'how I want them to,' which is another way of saying 'according to my plan" (Rob Bell, Drops like Stars). 

We all do this don't we?  The question is, why do we allow ourselves to add all of this extra stress, and disappointment, and sadness by creating plans that I can't and shouldn't try to pull off?

We need to truly say "God, I'm here.  I don't know where you're taking us, or why nothing is working out the way I thought it would, but I know that You are in control - and so I'm going to quit trying to make things happen myself and will trust that you'll bring us through."