WHAT IS CONTROL?
9/11/2010 8:14 amWhat does it mean to be “in control” of your own life … and more importantly, who has such control?
In a nutshell the answer to the above question is that no one in this world has control over any of the really big things in life. Oh, we foolishly think we do... until reality steps up and shows us what little power we actually possess. She was only 26 years old, and after a hard rain this young wife was going for a short drive with her husband: their car stalled in the middle of the road and she got out to help him push the car to the curb. They were sloshing through knee-deep water when she suddenly disappeared; gone in an instant... and quite dead.
It seems that during the rainstorm a sewer cover had been moved out of place and she fell into this gaping hole and drowned before either of them knew what happened. Yet, just a few minutes before both of them had been “in control” of their own lives. I mean, each had dressed in the clothes they “chose,” each had eaten food of their own “choice.” and together they had even driven down the road they had “chosen:” I mean, here was a young couple who was well “in control” of their own lives... captains of their own destinies... masters of all they saw: that was... until within the blink of an eye she was dead and in that same split-second this young husband found himself all-alone.
A young father was out for a walk on Owen Street with his four-year-old boy. A large tree toppled over in front of them... the father was injured and taken to the hospital, and the little boy died at the scene. But, just a few seconds before this tragedy occurred, weren't they “in control” of their lives?
A 55 year-old woman in Junction City was helping a friend clean up some rental property. As she was trimming a rose bush a bee stung her on the tip of her finger... 2 and ½ hours later she was pronounced dead at the local hospital. If I cared to do it I could sit here and type non-stop for the next 20 years telling similar stories about death overtaking someone when they least expected it... and there would still be millions of stories left untold! In reality, no living person has any real type of “control” over their own lives.
Today, September 11th (2010) more than three-dozen young and innocent children will begin to suffer, along with their shocked parents as together they will learn they have cancer.
Today, for more than 1,600 families it will be the first day of the rest of their lives they will know what it is like to have lost a loved one to a heart attack. Today, for more than 1,500 families it will be the first day of the rest of their lives they will know what it is like to have lost a loved one to cancer. Today, for more than 370 families it will be the first day of the rest of their lives they will know what it is like to have lost a loved one to stroke. Today, for more than 350 families it will be the first day of the rest of their lives they will know what it is like to have lost a loved one to respiratory illness. Today, for more than 338 families it will be the first day of the rest of their lives they will know what it is like to have lost a loved one to an unintentional accident. And, of course, I didn't even mention the other 775 families who, today, will know what it is like to have lost a loved one because of Alzheimer's, diabetes, influenza, nephritis, septicemia, etc. etc. etc. Now, tell me again, who has any “control” over their lives? (Keep in mind also that I am only speaking about a very small percentage of the world's population who will (today) begin to experience what I have written about in this paragraph. It is because I am only giving statistics for America... which is only 6% of the world's population. Sadly, the numbers I quoted above could be extrapolated by more than 16 times and still be accurate. It seems that no one has any real control.)
The saying by Thoreau rings ever-true: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation...” We are always waiting... expectantly... anxiously... waiting... for that other-shoe to drop. Perhaps I am writing about this lack of control that humanity faces because I too... see dead people. I don't see them in exactly the same way as little Cole did: none-the-less, I do see them every single day of my life. They are on my desk and hanging on the walls in my office, and more of them are on my wife's desk and her dresser-top. There are parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. And in every picture they are vibrant, alive, smiling, happy... yet... eternity awaits: though that truth isn't apparent in any of the pictures.
Maybe my writing about our apparent lack of any real type of control in our lives is nothing more than I have been studying the life of Job for the past several weeks in my daily devotions. How could a man like Job, who on the authority of the only One who is Authority, have it said about him that he feared God and hated evil, which is exactly the testimony that all people would want... yet, in a matter of hours Job would lose all ten of his children, lose his servants, lose his animals and property, lose his wealth, lose all respect from his peers, lose his wife's confidence, and finally, lose his health also. I ask again... how could this happen? The answer is simple after all. We, that is the human race, have no control in our lives whatsoever as it relates to any of the “big” things which happen to us. If you doubt that truth might I type a few words to you from our very recent past which (perhaps) will jog your memory:
September 11. 2001 – World Trade Towers, Pentagon, Shanksville, PA.
December 26, 2004 – Indian Ocean tsunami.
August 29, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina – Southeast coast USA.
January 20, 2009 – Obama sworn in as president. (Sorry... as I was thinking about cataclysmic and apocalyptic things which have happened around the world and in our own country I could not leave this terrible act out of this group.)
January 20, 2010 – Haiti earthquake.
I just listed a few acts which have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Just for a few seconds I want you tho think about how people died in all of the above listed calamities. In most cases I think you will agree... they never saw it coming. I assure you that not a single one woke that day and said... today will be the day I meet my Maker! Yet, they did... every last one of them... no control whatsoever.
Maybe my writing about this lack of control is nothing more than one of my granddaughters fell from a play-set and broke her arm. She had been told not to climb on the monkey bars, but as a sometimes wilful five-year-old she did it anyway. Later, with her arm in a cast from fingertip to shoulder, I asked her about her accident. I queried, “What did your mom and dad think about you getting hurt?” What I was looking for was some ownership about her own injury, since her mom and dad had warned her not to play on the set. Instead, the answer I received is pure Hallie. She knitted her brows and thought for a minute and then said, “Well, what I think is that I got hurt worse than Mom and Dad thought I would get hurt.” Most probably a true statement, though not exactly what I was looking for.
Because this blog is somewhat “dark” I will lighten the mood, but only for one quick Hallie story then I will return to the task at hand. I never know who all reads my blogs other than those who write, email, or make a comment to me about something I have written: The last time I looked at my tracking numbers I have had a little more than 7,000 readers who have taken their time to read some of the different things I have blogged about recently. Many of these people know nothing about me other than what I write. Because of that I need to explain one particular relationship I have in order that you might understand what Hallie said and why it's such a funny story. Without having this knowledge, what she said would not make any sense. So, for those who know me personally this part will not be needed, but for the rest this is important: Stephanie is my daughter and Hallie's mom. Now, as Paul Harvey famously states: it is time for... “the rest of the story.”
We visited a little more that same evening that Hallie had gotten her cast and her mom had been telling her to not jump on or off of the furniture, because she was risking hurting her broken arm or perhaps another body part. (She had been told a few times already.) I had stood to leave and was talking to one of the other children when I heard a “smacking sound.” Turning around I saw that Stephanie had smacked Hallie's leg, not particularly hard... but it got her attention. I looked at her and saw that she was far more embarrassed than hurt and she crumpled down on the corner of the couch and began to cry. I waited a couple of minutes and then I leaned down and hugged her neck and I explained that no one wanted to spank her or see her cry, but neither did anyone want to see her hurt. She whispered something to me that I couldn't quite hear. So, I got a little closer and asked her to repeat what she had said. She said, “That daughter of yours is nothing but trouble!” Once I was in the car... I laughed all of the way home.
Perhaps I am writing about this because last month my nephew, Chris, a young man in his 20's was diagnosed with Leukemia. There is a famous saying: “Man proposes; God disposes.” Though, as it relates to time and happenstance I actually like a particular Bible quote the best. Matthew 5:45b: “... for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
That is why you can have a man like Job, who loved God and feared Him... suffer greatly. Yet, you can have a man like Bill Gates who is a God-hater... live well and prosper. God's rain... falls on all men, the just and the unjust.
In the end I have no answers to any of life's biggest questions... other than I know one sublime truth! God is real... and how I know is that I met Him personally one Thursday evening December 17, 1981. Though much of what happens in this life will always be a mystery to us... mere mortals: however, there is coming a day for the redeemed of God (those who have asked Jesus to save them) when all of this will finally make some sense to us. Until then though, when bad things happen to good people and you come to me to explain why? I suppose (by heart) I know maybe four-dozen verses (beginning with Romans 8:28) that I will quote for you... and all of the time I am reciting these to you I will be admitting in my own heart that I also have no understanding as to why? In the vernacular of the secular: such knowledge is above my pay-grade.
You can always email me at clarkmatthews1@aol.com
posted by Robin Johnson @ 4:39 PM
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