Control

"And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you."

- 1 Samuel 24:12

This verse is imbedded within a dialogue between David and Saul, the king of Israel at the time. In the chapters preceding this, there was quite a bit of drama taking place between these two men. Even though he was king, Saul had been jealous of David because the people saw him as a more able bodied leader than Saul. So, Saul set out to kill David. Nice guy, huh?

It would have been very easy for David to retaliate, but he doesn't. He gives it over to God. He basically says, "Saul, your life and the decisions you've made are not in my hands. They're in God's. Let Him deal with it."

I think it's very easy for us to take matters into our own hands...to play the role of God in our life. I'm sure David was tempted to do that. I've been tempted to do that. I'm sure you have as well.  Deep down, to some degree, we're all fighting for control of our life.

The myth that is often times put out there is that if WE gain more control of our life, we'll have freedom, joy, happiness...all of the things we're striving for.  Our culture promises these things. I think of Verizon's latest ad campaign: "Rule the Air" or Burger King's "Have it Your Way". Now, I don't have huge issues with cell phones or fast food, but it does point to the fact hat in our culture we have this desire to control aspects of our life...we want to rule and have it our way much of the time.

The truth of the matter is that this mentality doesn't lead to what we're striving for...the more control we have over our life the more we become stuck in patterns, routines and habits that hold us back from living life to the fullest.




I mean, c'mon...does this look like the face of someone who's truly happy and fulfilled?

I didn't think so either. :)

But let me ask this. What would it look like to give up control? What would it look like to entrust all of the details of our existence to someone who's bigger than our existence? David did it, and it paid off. Because David said, "It's in God's hands" Saul came to the realization of what he had done. He realized how poorly he had treated David, and how well David had treated him.

If we want to see change in our life, maybe we need to start by giving up control of it.