Do you know that feeling when you’re skidding and you can’t stop. Anyone who has driven on ice knows how helpless it feels.
That’s how it feels in our lives right now. Loss of control.
You are in control of fewer things right now, and for leaders or parents or any adulting human that can feel scary. So your reaction is to try to control as much as you can.
Control people or plans or government guidance or helpful but stressed coworkers. Control your children. Control your investments. Control the calendar, the clock, the conversation.
But you don’t need to be in control. And neither is this crisis in control.
God is. Always has been. Always will be.
Want more traction for the days and weeks ahead? Would it help to have a sense of certainty to your plans? Then believe this:
“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand” (Psalm 37:23,24).
Delight in the Lord. Trust him. Follow him even though you can’t see clearly. You know him, and how good he is, how strong he is, how he’s always come through for you.
You may feel like you are slipping, but his hand has you. All of you. All the time. You will not fall.
PRAYER: Dear Almighty God, your control is both strong and gentle, rigid and free. Your hand sometimes guides, sometimes comforts, and sometimes shields. Please give me the faith to control less, and trust you more. And when I can’t control others as I’d like, let me be gentle with them, too. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: What does it mean for you to delight in the Lord? For me, that’s not duty, not rule-keeping or behavior modification. That’s a relationship where I just love my Savior. He is beautiful to me. I can’t wait to spend quality time with him. I want to take him with me to Home Depot and browse the aisles. I want to laugh together with him. Stay close to him. Listen to him. Talk to him. Trust him with my everything, even my own life and soul and eternity.