June 15th
Read: Colossians 1:15-19 and Zechariah 4:6
To control all events in life is an impossible task. Accidents happen, wittingly or unwittingly, often as culminations to a chain of inconsequential events. For instance, one Saturday my sister and I, both teenagers, were helping Mother to clean house, a regular Saturday chore for us. Marge and I worked together in the living-room while Mother was in her bedroom just off the living-room. She had dust-mopped the hardwood floors in there and, after shaking the dust outside, had rested the mop against the couch in the living-room so that we could use it when we were ready. Shortly afterwards she came out to do something else, tripped over the dust-mop, and saw the handle fall through one of the large living-room windows! She fell apart. Blame was heaped upon us because we hadn’t yet moved the mop. She dissolved into tears. She wasn’t able to let go of the event in her thinking and go on from there.
Marge and I cleaned up the glass, and the window was replaced. We saw that Mother was an imperfect person just as we are. Apparently Mother saw that too, and she found that difficult to deal with
Things happen. Mistakes are made. Promises are broken or forgotten. Relationships are strained or broken. People are imperfect. We cannot even control ourselves totally, not to mention controlling others. Our imperfections show. Learning to enjoy others in spite of this is a way to maintain peaceful attitudes towards them. Let go. God is the One in control, not us.
MY BALLOON
My balloon is a fragile and glorious thing
As it bobbles and tugs on the end of its string.
It is color and joy to my heart and my eyes
As it floats o’er my head ‘twist the earth and the skies.
‘Tis a bated-breath feeling I hold in my hand,
A ‘wondering whether’ it really is grand
Or if the dread feeling of doing ‘the worst’
Will plunge me in gloom when that bubble has burst;
But when I decide that life’s meant to be gay,
I let go and we both soar up, up and away!
Prayer: Dear God, help me to let go and enjoy Your control over my life and its circumstances and events.