The Illusion of Control

February 15, 2009

Today's Reading: Leviticus 1-3 and Acts 5

I would like to think that I am in control of my world. I would like to think that if I worked hard, I would succeed. I would like to think that if I did the right things, good things would happen to me in turn.

However, these things have absolutely no guarantee. I realize that we often live our lives by some scientific method of doing x to obtain y, but there is usually some z factor that just loves to muddle with our little plan.

Take the reading from Acts today. (By the way, a lot of these devotional entries will probably New Testament focused because I seriously think that Leviticus is boring.)

Here, the apostles were going out and preaching the Lord’s work, only to find that the people were not responding. No surprise there. It probably doesn’t take a great leap of faith to believe that all this preaching would lead to them being thrown in prison.

The real surprise was when an angel unlocked all the doors in the prison. Instead of the apostles saying: “Okay, let’s make a break for it”, they went back and preached. It appeared that action x (preaching the gospel) was going to lead to y (being tossed back into prison).

Instead, one of the great teachers of the law, Gamaliel, speaks up. He sites two demagogues who had their attempts at power, but were subsequently stopped. He simply states that “if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men: you will only find yourselves fighting against God”.

In other words, if God wants something to happen, it does. If we won’t do it, then God will raise up someone who will.

You ever seen those time travel movies where a character goes back in time to try and prevent something from happening, only to find that it happens anyway, albeit differently. Think of that remake of The Time Machine a few years ago when Guy Pearce is trying to save the one he loves from death. First he prevents her from being mugged, only to have her be hit by a steam-driven automobile. If I were in that situation, I honestly don’t know how many times I would time traveled before I would have quit.

Maybe after I lead my girlfriend out into a field of some kind, where nothing can hurt her, she would get hit by an asteroid.

My point is that you cannot change the past, and guess what, there are aspects about the present that are pretty much set in stone. If God wants it, it is happening.