Losing Control
January 31, 1999
Dear Friends,
A few weeks ago, we left you with a thought that there is a direct link between faith and happiness. The idea is that if we increase our faith, we will increase our happiness.
Unhappiness can come from many sources, but certainly one source is a feeling that we are not in control. One brother makes comments to me often concerning the “illusion of control.” Control is an illusion because it assumes we have the ability to manipulate any outcome by a number of factors: proper planning, effort, intelligence, etc. You will often hear people say something to the effect that they are “losing control.” That statement is based upon the false assumption that we are in control in the first place.
The illusion is strengthened by the fact that within a certain context we do have the ability to shape an outcome. A quick Biblical example of this is the wise man who built his house upon the rock. Proper planning, wisdom and diligence allowed the wise man to avoid the disaster which faced the foolish man. However, the same parable also illustrates the illusion of control. God brought the flood which washed away the house. This was controlled by neither the wise nor the foolish man. Needless to say, if God wanted the wise man's house to fall, it would have fallen no matter what amount of effort he put into it.
There is a phrase which comes to mind which I think is a maxim to live by: “Do your best and leave the rest to God.” We do not want to be like the foolish man and not do our best; especially when it comes to God's service. Nor do we want to live under an illusion of complete control. This will only bring frustration when the reality sets in that we cannot control all factors of our lives. We must live in faith that God is in control. He has expectations of us which we must fulfill and which require our effort. Yet, one of those expectations is that we believe [is in] His control of our lives.
The difficulty in this subject lies in creating the balance between faith and action. We are struck by the simple beauty of faith in verses such as “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.” Left to itself, we might come to think that any preparation for the future was evil. We balance this with other verses, such as “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” However, left to itself, this verse could leave us with the false impression that with the right amount of planning, the completion of the tower was assured.
The balance seems to be that there is no evil in preparing for the future as long as we do it in faith. The evil comes when we worry about the future or put too much trust in what we have planned rather than in God. We should remember that “ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour…. ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” (James 4:14-15)
We have a good start toward happiness in this life if we do our best in our endeavors. Yet, when we find that obstacles are in our way or our diligence in preparation has been for nothing, we should be comforted in the thoughts that “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” as well as “know that all things work together for them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)
Have a great week!
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