I read this this morning (by Wilfrid Stinissen):
“Love is to step outside of ourselves, and that is possible only if we believe and trust in God.”
I began to think…. Am I ever really able to step outside of myself or do I hold tight to the illusion that I am in control? If I really let go and trust, what might happen? I need to sit with this a while and both rationalize it (mind) and listen to it (heart) because the choice is really simple. Stay ‘inside myself’ where I think that I can control things, or ‘step outside’ into the darkness, into the unknown…and trust. ‘Stay inside’ where fear and anxiety are my companions or ‘step outside’ into the arms of Love. OK, it makes sense….now, to do it……
It really does make sense to lose control and hand over matters to God. But it is very difficult … almost against our very human nature.
During my illness I lost control. I just HAD to listen to and do what my doctors said. I neither had the knowledge, nor the strength, to argue and take matters in my hands … in my control.
Funny how we so often willingly hand over control to others in our lives; yet we find it so difficult to hand over control to God. It’s a matter of trust I suppose … or lack of it!
God bless.
You make an excellent point Victor. We trust others with our lives and yet we continually resist trusting God. This is something I really want to focus on in 2011.
Control is such an illusion, isn’t it? We try, but it is never really ours.
So true Sue, so true. And the trying leads to frustration, anxiety, anger, etc.
Giving yourself to God is the daily act of conversion. More and more, day by day, you then move from self-control (an illusion if ever there was one!) to being at peace with the Lord. You do this and you reach a day when you look back and it comes to you how much you have been blessed and how far you have come.
Yes, you are so right….and then, there is always further to go, and deeper levels to explore.