Good morning…
As long as we are breathing, challenges arise. We hope for easy, smooth, uncomplicated. We get delays, mishaps, technical difficulties. We expect happy, simple, dreams in full bloom. We experience snags, disappointments, lost luggage moments. We pray for peace, healing, God’s palpable presence. We feel loss, pain, “Where are You, God, now?”
When life’s unwanted happenings happen to us, how do we put into practice Richard Rohr’s quote? “I would rather be ‘in love’ than ‘in charge’.” In big and small ways, life falls apart daily. To be “in love” or “in charge”? That is our question.
With our internet mysteriously down, I could not post morning messages the past two days. Life handed me a complicated snag, a “small thing” to delay, to disappoint, to derail my happy habit of writing to you each night. Even in this tiny matter, I faced a choice. I could remain grounded with God “in love” – trusting, patient, peace-filled anyway – or I could try to be “in charge” – ranting, raging, being a squeaky wheel demanding grease now.
One of my favorite Bible verses comes into play each time life hands us an “in love” or “in charge” dilemma. Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8, AMP). When we consciously connect to Christ, we can remain “in love,” patient and peaceful, weathering life’s unpredictable weather whether we like it or not. When we unconsciously disconnect from Christ, we can forcefully flounder “in charge,” anxious and angry, inflicting stress on ourselves, loved ones, strangers.
We are designed to live in constant conversation with Christ. We ask, “How are we to put Richard Rohr’s quote into practice daily?” Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important priority, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them” (Matthew 22:37-40, MSG).
…Sue…
