Taking Control: A Metaphor

Just an - an interesting metaphor - that I saw yesterday and really spoke to me. I was walking past the little park on the way to Redfern and there were two dogs playing there - one a little puppy, the other much bigger. The bigger dog had a stick in his mouth and was standing still holding on to it, while the little one was jumping up, trying to grab the stick and pull it from the other dog. But no matter how hard the little one pulled and jumped, he could not make the bigger dog release the stick. All he was doing was knocking the stick around. And it just reminded me of God and us...

God has made us - created us - and he's in control of the whole universe and our lives. We can't change that, just like the little dog can't make the big dog release the stick, because we are not God. We don't have his power or his wisdom or anything else for that matter. But like the little dog, we want control - not of a stick, but of our lives. But our attempts to grab control of our lives and pull it away from God (what the Bible calls sin) are not only fruitless, but also serve to knock us about. I'm sure you've felt the effects of sin damaging your life.

So what's the alternative? Knowing Christ died to bring us into relationship with God again, we can sit back and rest in the safety that our lives are in the best hands possible. Learn to trust him with your life - your whole life. This is where I so often fall down. I'm happy to trust God with little bits of my life, but not the whole thing...

Then instead of fighting over the stick, through the peace-making death of Jesus, we can again have relationship with God and can have an awesome time being joyful about that!