Saturday, March 19, 2011

Obsessed with Control

Do you believe in fate?  How about destiny?  Predetermination anyone?  Most folks I know do not like the idea of our future being beyond our control.  We make decisions.  We make choices.  So why is our fate up to debate?  If I choose to go left at the stop sign instead of right, won’t the final outcome be different, surely the short term results should be measurable.  Yet despite our ability to decide to go left at the cross roads, there are many other factors that remain out of our direct control.  Large items like the weather and gravity come to mind; but many other smaller items are equally impossible to mandate such as the behavior of others and unforeseen events.
We are faced with the unpredictable all around us, and so rather than allows ourselves the truth of the uncertainty of our continued existence, we decide to cling to an illusion of control.  The idea that despite what we are unable to control, there are still many things we can control, has greater appeal to us, than the truth of how limited our ability is to even influence an outcome, let alone control it.  Those fortunate few who have developed a strong will in their lifetimes by being able to exert a measure of control over their actions, have an even firmer grasp on the illusion of control, than those less fortunate few who realize their own behavior looks more like addiction than self-control.  But what remains in us all is a shared belief that we have at least “some measure” of control in our lives.
This thinking however, infects our spiritual desires as well.  The ideas that we somehow control our lives, invades the ideas that we should equally be able to influence our spiritual lives.  “Obedience” becomes the spiritual mantra for our conservative brothers and sisters.  Not obedience found in the converted heart, but rather obedience for the sake of obedience; sometimes presented as a prerequisite of God’s approval, or even worse, as a prerequisite of coming to God.  Indeed, scriptures are full of texts outlining why obedience is so important to us and God.  But it is our illusions of control, that lead us to believe we are simply capable of obeying or not.  Similar to the alcoholic who believes they can quit drinking anytime, but just never seem to get around to making that decision – so Christians seem to believe that they can stop sinning anytime just by choosing to do so.  And like the alcoholic, they just never seem to finally get around to making the sin-stopping decision.
Evil is like cancer, in that it spreads when it left unchecked.  Note that the identification of cancer does nothing to cure it, that would require treatment, perhaps surgery.  But just saying to the patient, “Yes, you sure have a nasty case of cancer” does nothing to actually help the patient.  Condemning cancer also does nothing to cure it.  Telling a patient … “if you had made better choices, lived a healthier life, and essentially gotten my approval, you might not have this terrible disease” does nothing to cure cancer, and may even make an enemy of the cancer patient.  Telling the patient about how “bad” the pain is, seems a bit redundant, and again does nothing at all to help the patient get better.  Ever even met a cancer patient whose first thought was not about getting better?
Yet we treat fellow Christians who are found in error, the same way.  We judge them according to our own standards of Biblical morality.  We ridicule their life choices, and blame them for the conditions they find themselves in, taking no personal accountability for their conditions.  Then instead of focusing on a cure for our erring brothers, we instead focus on the disease, all the pain they should be feeling, all the desperation, none of the hope.  The best Christians have been able to offer the world, is forgiveness after the fact, but seldom a cure to eliminate the need for forgiveness, and to live a healthier life in the first place.
But if we know this about the nature of evil, and cancer, and how they both spread – then why are they still spreading?  The answer is painful.  It is because we have chosen our illusions of control, over the truth of total dependence found in the word of our God.  In the Garden of Eden, Adam bit the forbidden fruit, and in so doing, he ceded control to Satan over this world, and over himself, and all of mankind.  It is not just the dirt, Satan gets to rule over.  It is the hearts, minds, and inclination of the people God created in this world.  From that moment on, Adam put all of mankind into slavery.  We are NOT free.  We are BOUND to the will of our own carnal natures.  If left to ourselves, we will choose to act in our own self-interest even when that conflicts with the needs of another.  What are the famous slogans we see around us – “who is looking out for number one”, “do unto others, then split”, “God helps those who help themselves”.  All designed around the idea that man must be self-focused before he can be externally focused, even in the case of spiritual concepts.
The illusion of control is a form a self-worship.  It is a form of exalting our decisions, our choices, and our supposed capabilities above even Satan or God.  We somehow think we free of our own accord to choose to follow God or not.  Even this is untrue.  Adam entered us into slavery.  Our chains prevent us from making a truly free decision.  So even in this, our God must elevate our minds, and balance the scales of our lives in order for us to get even enough to make the decision to choose Him.  Otherwise we would every one of us default to our evil natures and choose what is natural over what is not.  The idea that we control our world is as silly as believing we can cure cancer in ourselves, simply by deciding it will be so, no matter what chemistry says.
In order to treat our disease of evil, we must as Yoda says, “unlearn what you have learned”.  We must begin by embracing the truth of our existence, that we have NO control over it, we have at best the ability to influence it slightly.  Our greatest abilities to influence our existence come only in regards to how much worse we can make it, seldom in how much better.  We can elect to kill ourselves, but we cannot decide to make ourselves 100% cured over every medical ailment we suffer from.  We can elect to cut ourselves, but cannot decide to simply undo the damage to our bodies we inflict while making such a deranged and negative decision.  It is easier for me to destroy your sandcastle on the beach, than to spend the hours it takes creating one with you.
We must continue by rejecting the connections we have formed between God and patriotism.  The American Dream as most define it, is a lie.  Owning your own home, 2 cars, a spouse, 2.1 kids and a white picket fence does not define the ideals of our success, nor does it measure the contributions we are capable of making as citizens of this or any other country.  The idea that through hard work, anyone can succeed is simply false.  It takes more than just hard work.  And the ideas of self-reliance we have been taught must be rejected.  We are rather, and in fact, fully dependent on our God for our lives, our sustenance, and our success.  And by allowing our God to mold our characters into His image, we will be better prepared to sacrifice for the sake of others, including our fellow citizens in this, or any other nation.  The truth would make us better citizens and patriots of our native lands, than the lies we embrace today.  Our nation, and our world, needs those who would by example serve others and enrich the lives of others; than merely another generation out to find only the maximum fun they can derive before dying.
And finally we must reject the god of self we have allowed to creep into our Christian philosophy, and realize we are slaves bound to self, that self is the enemy of our God.  We must begin to see that “I” truly am my own worst enemy in the spiritual realm.  We must embrace the words of Paul when he writes … “I die daily”.  This is not a rerun of an old SouthPark episode where they kill Kenny every week.  This is rather the mantra of Christians who understand that self is the enemy of the entirety of God’s government, and “service to others” is the only real heroic aspiration.  We must submit our will to our God each day.  We must give back to God the life we wake up to each morning, and ask that He alone be in charge over it.  To do with our lives as He alone wishes.  To make any changes He sees fit.  To use us in His own good service as He would envision, but not merely as it is convenient to us.  We must ask to “want” what He “wants”.  We must ask that He teach us how to “love” like He “loves”.  In this our earliest morning prayer, we are able to echo the words of Paul and join him in dying daily.
To witness true obedience in our lives, these are the “choices” we must make.  It begins with the abandonment of lies and illusions of control, it ends with promised work of the Messiah in our hearts and minds.  This is the cure of cancer and evil we have sought and has so long eluded us.  This is the promise we can cling to without reserve.  This is the way that Christianity can once again return to the prominence it experienced in the Apostolic days.  For in those times, as in this age, we must focus completely on Christ as the ONLY solution to our lives.  For it is He alone who can rid us of the evil we embrace, and He alone who can further eliminate the natural inclinations that drive us.  It is Christ who can finally and fully set us free.

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