“The illusion of control is truly pathetic, but it is also hilarious. Deciding what I need most out of life, carefully calibrating my next move, and generally allowing my autonomous self to run amok inflates my sense importance and reduces the God of my incredible journey to the role of spectator from the sidelines.” – Brennan Manning

Until the post war, baby boom era of the 1940’s and 1950’s, life was categorically defined differently than it is today. Life was defined by loss; loss in the forms of death, poverty, famine, disaster, plague and tyranny. Lost wives and children in childbirth, loss of life and limb to disease and war, loss of rights and privilege to the powerful and influential, loss of community to political systems of control and conquest; the masses of people in the world identified much more with loss than success, flourishing and freedom. Over the last 60 to70 years the idea of “quality of life” has become one of the most popularized felt rights in our society at large and a main individualistic driving force in personal achievement. A system of entitlement and preference has permeated many facets of our culture. Unfortunately, the essence of this has even intruded into our expectations of God and how we responsively live within his provision. Our reality of who He is has been mutated and humanized by what we feel we deserve in our lives. We have come to a crossroad in our decisions within our lives. Brennan Manning goes on to say, “One cannot but think of the wrong marriages, wrong jobs, wrong personal relationships, and all the concomitant suffering that would be avoided if Christians submitted their decision making processes to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and shared in his intimate trust in God’s direction.” As we look into our world and try to emulate Jesus, we must have a clear picture of who He is; from the Healing Savior to the Man of Sorrows who had no place to lay his head, understanding the truth of a life in Christ is a key to showing life to those who are mired in loss.

Carl Jung says, “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.” Isaiah 53 describes suffering as it should be recognized in the suffering servant and his mission of the affliction of his mind, body and soul producing the light of life. In our example set forth by Jesus, lives spent living out the will of God require a relinquishing of our will to that of the Father’s. Continually we put forth our neurosis of inconvenience in place of our actual suffering on his behalf. Many times our “suffering” is felt in the compromise of our agenda for our will in our lives. We suffer more in response to our own lack of will to submit to God, than from the repercussions of a world which is in opposition to that submission. Paul echoes again and again the benefits of his suffering in Christ. James encourages us to consider it pure joy to go through trials. The Psalmist cries out to God amidst distress and praises the Lord for his faithfulness throughout his life. We have a number of examples where prison, beheading, exile, ridicule, and stoning are the levels of turmoil facing those who fervently follow God and share Him with those in their path; yet He sustains every one of them who is in his service to their joyful, abundant, salvific benefit.

In the transitions of the world and its societies from loss to gain, we must have a concrete idea of this within our context as children of God. Identifying our hearts with the sentiment of Paul to the Philippians, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things that I may gain and be found in Him, not having righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ.” We know that legitimate suffering produces focus in our hearts on God. When we focus on Him, we resign our ideas of our own control in our lives. In light of his power, we know our own fallibility and powerlessness eradicates the belief in our own ability to be the agent of change instead of Him. I know myself and how feeble I am in my ability to be the all-powerful means of transformation in my life. If my daily (let alone eternal) preservation was up to me and my achievement, I would be a hopeless and empty mess; consumed by accomplishment, jealousy and ego. Thank God that He is the source of my provision.

As we continue to focus on Him through our daily circumstances, He retains his rightful position of the One True God in our hearts and minds. When we divert our eyes from his Lordship, we focus ourselves, where we are and what we are doing on our own wisdom and judgment; misinterpreting our lives in accordance to our own will. Even more realistically, when we lose sight of the Father’s will, we focus on what we aren’t, what we do not have that we should, and what we deserve to be doing rather than what we are. In doing this we sow seeds of discontentment and disillusionment about who we are, what the sources of our suffering are and what the truth of God’s will is. We must learn to live in the light of truth, known only in his sovereign control and the joys of what Godly struggling produces in our hearts. If everything was easy, free, fulfilling and lasting, we would never trust God in situations or interactions in our lives – we would simply accept life and stagnate in our pursuit of God for the pursuit of our own agenda. Fortunately for us, God truly does love us and wants us to grow in closeness to Him. The more we interact with an inconsistent world of sin and struggle, we see that his yoke is easy, his grace is free, his purpose is fulfilling, his faithfulness is lasting, and He is the only one who is worthy of the dedication, struggle and service of our lives. There is no other god deserving of all glory and praise, the Lord our God is above all.

As we interact with our desires, our suffering, and his will we must remain focused on his omniscient wisdom in the circumstances of our lives. His desire is to draw us ever nearer Him and sustain us within his purpose. The God of our incredible journey does not resemble the semi-powerful Mike Ditka, quietly knowing and providing a plan he hopes we will follow though a variety of attacks. The Lord of the Universe is interacting in the minutia of every facet of our lives with the intent of guiding us to contentment and obedience to Him. He is filling you with gladness in his Lordship, a peace which surpasses all understanding, and a hope which is irrefutable contained in God Most High. The words of Paul to the Corinthians comfort us as we experience suffering in our lives and know the purpose of God sustaining us through it: Do not live in the dark. At times we suffer great enough that is seems unbearable or that we will not survive. Sometimes we even feel as if we are being punished to an ultimate degree. As this suffering happened to us, we came to know afterward that our suffering was the best thing for us that could have happened – as we fully embraced (and in fact were forced to) trusting God completely instead of trusting our own strengths or wits to get us through. We trusted in the God who is so powerful that He raises the dead to life – such security which is only known in the wisdom of the Spirit. And He was faithful; He raised us from certain doom. And He will do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need, when we trust in Him to do so. Continue in prayer, and our partnership in prayer, as it is a pivotal part of God’s work; crucial to the preservation of those who follow God. Be confident that He has carried us through until now and will continue without reservation. For we will never be preserved by our own efforts or our own strength of focusing on Him – He is the one who keeps us uncompromisingly focused on his heart for our survival. Let us be glad and stand together in confidence and understanding in the presence of Jesus Christ, our Master and Lord. Let us focus on his power; that He is in control and will bring us safely though and confidently to his purpose and presence. He is the Lord who was, and is, and is to come – who can match the provider of all we need, not just to survive, but to be filled with joy, purpose and contentment and we glorify Him.