Out of Control

I’ve been thinking about all the things that are happening in the world that I care about, but that are completely out of my control.  There’s the presidential election.  I care about how that comes out, but other than my one vote (which won’t come for some time) there’s nothing I can do to affect it.  It’s completely out of my control.  There’s the United Methodist General Conference, which took place in May.  I care about what happened there, but there was nothing I could do to affect it.  It was completely out of my control.  There’s the Minnesota Twins baseball season.  I care about how they do, and wish they would do better, but there’s nothing I can do to affect it.  It’s completely out of my control.

I could list other things, too, some of which are much more personal.  But the point is, what do we do about this?  How do we respond when we care about so many things, but so many of the things we care about are completely beyond our control?

One way is to simply stop caring about anything.  And there are people who do that.  There are people who get so frustrated about their chance of making any substantive difference about anything that has the slightest bit of importance that they simply say, “Forget about it” and decide to just try to go out and have a good time in whatever time they have.  I can understand why people do that.  It’s the result of feeling completely powerless.  We feel like no one cares what we think anyway, and we’ll never be able to change anything, so why even try?  Why get all worked up over something when we have no ability to affect it?

I understand why people do that, but I don’t think it’s what God wants us to do.  I can’t think of a single time in the Bible where God’s advice to someone was “Give up and quit.”  I can’t think of a time when Jesus said that, either.  There are lots of times in the Bible when the Lord spoke to people, but I don’t think there was ever a time when the Lord’s message was “Give up and quit.”

But then, what should we do?  If we can’t make a difference about these things, but God does not want us to quit, how do we proceed?

Well, I don’t think there’s a “one size fits all” answer.  The answer for you may be entirely different from the answer for me.  The first step, of course, is to pray.  And when I’ve prayed about this, I’ve felt like God has given me an answer.  It may not be the same answer God has for you, but I’m putting it out there for you to think about and see if it’s something that might help.

The answer God has given me, at least for now, is not to stop caring.  The answer God has given me is to change my focus.  The answer God has given me is to spend less time thinking about the things I can’t do anything about and spend more time thinking about the things, and the people, I can do something about.

The answer God has given me, at least for now, is to leave the great global and national issues to God.  My focus, instead, should be on the people around me.  What I believe God has said to me is, “Help the people I’ve given you to help.  Be there for the people I’ve given you to be there for.  Love the people I’ve given you to love.  Leave the rest to Me.  If there’s anything I need you to do on those great global and national issues, I’ll let you know.”

I truly believe that’s what God is telling me to do right now.  Could that change?  Sure it could.  God has already taken me from being a lawyer to being a pastor.  God could have something else in store for me.  I’d rather God did not—I love being a pastor, and I love being one here—but God’s plans are not our plans.  And if God does decide on a different plan for me, I need to trust God enough to follow it.

But for now, I’m going to do my best to do what God has told me to do.  I’m going to help the people God has given me to help.  I’m going to be there for the people God has given me to be there for.  I’m going to love the people God has given me to love.  Will I do that perfectly?  No, of course not.  I won’t even come close.  I expect to fail lots of times.  I’m sure lots of you will notice lots of times when I fail.  I sure don’t mean this to come across as arrogant or holier-than-thou on my part.  I’m going to have lots of times when I don’t do this, and you can certainly let me know when I fall short (hopefully in a nice way).  But I hope there will be at least some times when I do it right.

The reason I’m bringing it up, though, is so you can think about it.  Think about whether that might be what God is telling you to do, too.  Maybe it is, maybe it’s not.  I don’t know.  But think about it.  Think about whether God might be telling you to help the people God has given you to help, be there for the people God has given you to be there for, love the people God has given you to love, and leave the rest to God, at least for now.  After all, if enough of us just did that, the world might be a better place.