Life's Not Logical

I wrote this a couple months ago for our church's women's blog...I just found it again and thought I would share...God's using this reality to speak to me today and I hope He uses it to speak to you as well :) Blessings.

 So often we want life to make sense.

We want a plan and a road map lined out…because we all know that trusting God will be very doable if we have a plan. We seem to say, “God I can trust you…I will give you everything…if I know what you’re planning to take away from me and what your next move is…if I know those few details I can completely trust you.”

 It’s as if we give God our hearts, but only conditionally:

      I’ll trust you as long as I know what you’re going to take away so I’ll know not to put a lot of time or effort into that thing or person.

      I’ll trust you as long as I know what my job is going to look like so I’ll know who to be nice to at the office and what extra credentials to pursue in preparation.

      I’ll trust you as long as I know whom I’m going to marry and when I’m going to meet him so I can make sure to have a free schedule and an open life plan.

We essentially want trust to be in our control, which, if we think about, is not trust at all. That kind of trust is fear driven…it’s self-driven…it’s driven by our deep desire to control.

This control thing seems to be an ongoing issue with women around the world since the beginning of time even. Remember that one girl named Eve? God told her she could trust him for everything, but there was one detail: she did not need to eat the fruit from one tree in the garden. She trusted him when it seemed logical to her, but the moment someone (the serpent) made an alternate argument… “Oh Eve God is just trying to keep you from something…he’s just trying to keep you from being in control…you want to be in control right? Well then girlfriend, eat that fruit and seize control of your life!”

 And Eve did.

 She let the fear that God was holding out on her, the fear that God was not being good to her, that God was really hurting her…drive her to take some of the fruit and eat.

 This is not a new story to us. Number one because we’ve heard it in the church, but also because it’s the cry of our own hearts everyday.

 We want life to make sense, to be logical, but so many times it doesn’t. So instead of resting in the One who does make sense we try and manipulate or put meaning to our own lives…our own situations.

 But what God wants us to do is recognize that life does not make sense. So many times our situations or lack of movement cause us to think something is wrong…they prompt us to take control and make sense of them…because once we understand what’s going on THEN, oh THEN we can trust God!

 But we’re never called to an understanding of our world, nor our situations…we’re called to dig deeper and rest assuredly in the arms of Christ. “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding…”.

 My own understanding even at it’s best is flawed, because it is tainted with sin and with my desire to be in control…my desire to know what I’m getting myself into…

 I challenge you (and myself) to step back and acknowledge that no matter how hard we try we’re never going to have our lives figured out. We’re never going to be able to rationalize our next best move nor the next best step… But what we can do is believe that God is in control…and that He loves us and in time He will show us the best next step.

 We don’t have to know what’s around the bend…especially because we’re not driving the car of our lives…God is… Life won’t always make sense…and that’s really hard to accept sometimes, because in accepting that we acknowledge we have no control (dang it, we have no control!).

When we acknowledge our lack of control the next best step is to give the authority, the honor and the driver’s seat over to the One who does. So let’s continually (continually…every day, every minute, every second) trust and hand over the wheel to the One who planned this whole road trip anyways…God the Father, who loves us, who sent His son Jesus to die for our sins, and His Holy Spirit to be our constant comfort.

 So here’s to no plan or rather letting go of our understanding of “the plan,” our life…and here’s to embracing the One who it’s all about anyways…Jesus Christ.

 Cheers, Caroline