Who’s In Charge Here?

Note: On Fridays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.

So there you are, tooling along with your little life and everything’s going fine and wham, out of nowhere, something throws you for a loop. Maybe it’s something big and tragic, like the unexpected death of a loved one. Or maybe it’s something big and wonderful but a surprise nonetheless, like a pregnancy or an unanticipated professional opportunity. Or maybe it’s a small annoyance or joy, like that the beach house you usually rent is already booked for the week you wanted or that your new book is out six weeks early and your marketing plan isn’t totally in place.

Does God send us bad things to show us who’s boss, the way Moses reminds the Israelites that God showed them his great fire? I’m not enough of a theologian to posit on that. I just know that when those surprises happen, our first reaction can be shock or disbelief or sometimes even anger at God and why the order in our lives that we have worked so hard to achieve had to be upset. Hours, days, weeks, months, years later, we often can look back and say, “Oh, I get it. I’m stronger/more loving/more patient/calmer for that bump or cavern in the road.”

May we all work at denying ourselves that bit of egoism that allows us to think we’re actually in control of much of anything that matters here on earth. With God’s help, may we reach that holy place where our initial reaction to change is internal peace… and trust.