.....control

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths Proverbs 3:5–6

A military science professor reviewing Air Force pilot crash reports found this gem:

"After catastrophic engine failure, I landed long. As I had no power, the landing gear failed to deploy and no braking was available. I bounced over the stone wall at the end of the runway, struck the trailer of a truck while crossing the perimeter road, crashed through the guardrail, grazed off a large pine tree, ran over a tractor parked in the adjacent field, and hit another tree. Then I lost control of the plane."

Then he lost control?? Clearly, things had gotten out of control long before he finally admitted it. But isn’t that a pretty good picture of how we live sometimes? We think we’re doing just fine — even while we’re bouncing off walls and leaving a mess behind us. We just grit our teeth and press on, thinking, "I’ve got this." We convince ourselves we’re still in control, even when it's obvious to everyone else  that we're not.

Here’s a hard truth for many of us to admit -- Life was never ours to control in the first place. God didn’t design us to be the self-sufficient pilots of our own lives. He designed us to trust him. When we insist on doing things our own way, we eventually find ourselves battered and bruised, wondering where it all went wrong. But when we finally let go — when we trust God and hand over the controls — he takes over with the kind of steady, loving guidance we were meant to rely on all along.

So, if you’re feeling the bruises from life’s collisions, you’re not alone. But you don’t have to keep pretending you’re in control. You can hand it over to the one who actually is. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

- alan smith

Father, thank you for your endless patience with me. I confess that I try to stay in control way too often, even when I’m crashing. Help me to surrender those parts of my life I’m trying to steer on my own and allow you to guide me. In Jesus’ name, amen.