There are situations in life where I resolve to put something in God’s
hands, but then I can’t let it go and I keep trying to help Him out. I fall
into this trap is because I can, for good or bad, actually impact the outcome
of a situation by my actions. However, there are other times when I have
absolutely no power, such as when a loved one has terminal cancer. I can let go
then because I know I am limited and God is unlimited. I’m thinking I need to recategorize
what problems I give to the Lord. In order to completely turn something over to
Him, maybe I should classify it as “terminal”.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Good idea. Something is major broken for the whole creation to be crying out in travail. Something very fundamental happened that day Eve discussed her menu options with the snake. Did man have no work to do before biting the apple? Did he have no initiative or autonomy such that he could not move things around and re-arrange his environment? Of course he worked. He tilled the garden. God led the animals past him so he could name each species by his own autonomy. And by his own initiative he considered his menu options in the garden. But everything held together better in those days. In fact, it all held together perfectly. Every cause produced an effect that was only beneficial to whatever it touched. There was no detriment. There was no bad. Everything worked together with everything else in producing what was good and proper and nurturing. God’s provisional hand was fully engaged.
-----And so was man’s. I don’t know how much of Adam’s tilling was for the production of his own food. I don’t know how much tilling his food required, if any. But everything he did worked perfectly. None of its outcomes were insufficient. None of his time went to waste. The garden enjoyed everything of his industry, and he enjoyed everything of the garden’s being. Although he worked he did not work for his own survival. Survival was a law of physics. It was created into how everything interacted.
-----But Adam and Eve’s interaction with the wrong fruit was summarily a request to be god. And God answered their request in the affirmative, so to speak. He took survival from the law of physics and put it upon man, and every beast, and everything to struggle for its own individual survival, or die. So each of us has been given a rope of responsibility towards our own survival and the fitness of whatever else we effect. Like Adam was given initiative and autonomy in the garden with his work, we each have initiative and autonomy with our rope of responsibility. But it is of a finite length. With one end securely anchored in the substance of our own being, the other end reaches only as far as do our physical abilities and mental prowess. Yet, it measures surely our area of responsibility, even though God is our strength. What is within its length, we must do, or do without.
-----Many people don’t realize this. They get caught up in blab-it-and-grab-it hoaxes and other excuses which try to make God appear responsible for everything, period. It is like denying the sweat He commanded to be upon our brows. The only comfort we can take in life is that after we have completely met our responsibility, if there is more yet to happen for the goodness we desire, then that is entirely up to God’s initiative and autonomy. Resting in His will at the end of your rope will not necessarily produce your ambitions. Everyone eventually dies there, for example. But the comfort at the end of your rope stretched straight into His will is the best, no matter what else happens there.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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