Control

This is Day 30 of my 40 day Lenten Blog.

You're not in control of your life. As much as you may want to be you are not. Anything can happen at any time that will send you into a tailspin.

When we try to take control of our lives we cause more problems than we solve. That is because we really do not know what is best for us. Only God does.

What is best for us is often painful. We don't like pain. We don't want to suffer. We want everything to be perfect. So we try to take control back. And we are exhausted fighting against the world. But when we give up control, when we take Jesus' yoke upon us and allow Him to lead us we can rest.

The only thing we are able to control is the cat o'nine tails. This is the whip used to scourge Jesus. It had leather thongs with bits of metal at the ends to slice open a person's back when it hit him. When we attempt to control our lives we end up scourging Jesus with the whip. We beat Him bloody through our sin, our pride, our selfishness. When we give up control to Him, we toss the whip at his feet.

We can never find rest until we give up control. Because we exhaust ourselves beating Jesus.

R.C. VanLandingham is the author of the Peter Puckett series, a Christian children's fantasy that explores what it means to know and love Christ through exciting adventures. His books and blog can be found at rcvanlandingham.com.