Turbulence

When I flew home at Christmas, I had the scariest flight experience of my life. Most of the flight was smooth, but as we began our descent we hit some turbulence. And this wasn't just a few little bumps. The plane was bouncing all over the place. You could see people's heads bobbing up and down. At one point the plane was on its side, and you could tell it wasn't because the pilot was trying to make a turn.

The plane felt completely out of control.

And of course, the only thing I could do in that moment was pray. I couldn't take over the piloting, and even if I was an expert pilot, it wouldn't have made a difference. I couldn't stop the air currents from causing the turbulence. But I had a lot at stake: Dunkin Donuts awaited me.

Well, the extreme turbulence continued through the entire descent. Even as the wheels hovered just a few feet off the runway, ready to touch down, the plane felt out of control. People clapped when we landed safely.

I'm someone who definitely likes to feel in control. I do a lot of planning ahead. I map out how each day should go. I arrange things just the way I want them. I have 16 dog-shaped erasers on my desk at work and when a co-worker turned two around so they didn't face the same direction as the others, I noticed within a couple of working days and rectified the problem.

And in the airport just before the flight, I'd been writing in a journal about my control issues. And that sometimes, I needed to learn to let go. That there were some things I just couldn't control and shouldn't try to.

So, chalk that turbulence up to God giving me an experience to cement that principle. When I was in a situation where I felt out of control, it was completely instinctual to go to the One who could bring control. The One who really was in control all along.

Now I just need to learn to give him the flight plan.

God In A Box

“As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. A man too poor to present such an offering looks for wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.” – Isaiah 40:19-20

These verses come right after several verses that talk about God’s amazing power, his unfathomable wisdom, and how small everything—even whole nations—are to him.

And then in stark contrast, we see what an idol has to offer: a sense of us being in control. Not only do human hands have to fashion the idol, but it’s up to us to determine the idols survival. If we don’t select the right wood or balance the idol, it will rot or topple.

You don’t see a lot of literal idols today, at least not in America. I don’t know anyone who’s ever commissioned a statue to worship. But I do think we crave this same sense of control.

In the verses preceding these, we’re made to feel small. Almost insignificant. With an idol, we wouldn’t feel small at all. We’re in control. Sometimes we don’t want a god beyond our control and understanding. Even if we don’t cast a golden idol today, I think we sometimes limit our declarations of who God is and what he can do, putting him a box so we don’t feel as small and powerless.

But God is infinitely more powerful than us. Even when verses 15 and 17 talk about “all the nations,” it describes them as “worthless” and “less than nothing” in comparison to God. Think about all the power represented by the leaders of all the nations. All of them. And it’s less than nothing in God’s eyes. That’s how big he is. That’s how powerful he is.

And he won’t fit in the cast I’ve made in my mind to contain him so I can feel a sense of control.

Control

My latest passage of Scripture to reflect on is Isaiah 40:10 and on. Verses 13 and 14 have really stuck out to me.

"Who has understood the mind of the Lord,

Or instructed him as counselor?

Who did the Lord consult to enlighten him,

and who taught him the right way?"

In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) isn't happy with the way his life is going. And he blames God for having a terrible plan. So God lets him take control, giving him all of his powers - and all the prayers to answer. Bruce embraces this power at first, using it selfishly. But ultimately the prayers pile up, and when none of his filing systems are effective at making a dent in the list, he just answers "yes to all." Chaos ensues.

Bruce Almighty is one of my favorite movies of all time because it demonstrates that God's power is not enough. If God was just all-powerful, but not all-knowing, the world would be just as chaotic as Bruce makes it.

And yet, I continue to forget that God doesn't need me to advise him on the best way to handle a situation. It's like going up to Michael Jordan and saying, "Hey, let me give you a tip on that lay-up shot." It's ridiculous! Who am I to instruct Michael Jordan on how to play basketball? And it's even more ridiculous to think that God needs my input on how to run the world.

He still loves to hear the desires of our hearts in our prayers. But he doesn't need us trying to take control. I definitely like to feel like I'm in control. 

When I was a kid, I remember trying out one of those amusement park attractions where you drive an old-timey car around a track. And it doesn't really matter how you steer, the car moves along the track. But I didn't realize that, and at age 8 believed I was an excellent driver, that my steering skills were keeping us from driving into the trees and fences. That's the kind of illusion of control we have when we take the steering wheel of our lives. God doesn't need us to drive...he's got it covered much better than we ever could.

Peace

The first day I started reflecting on Psalm 93, this line from verse 1 jumped out to me and filled me with peace: "The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved."

So often the world feels like it's just a stormy chaos. I mean not the physical earth, but my world. It sometimes feels like it's just bouncing around aimlessly. Like nothing is certain.

So when I read this verse I thought, "I just need to have the faith that God has my world in his hands. That even when it seems out of control, it cannot be moved from God's control."

And I started to think about when Jesus calmed the storm. It certainly seemed like the disciples' world was out of control. They said with confidence, "we're going to drown!" But the world wasn't out of control for Jesus. With a simple rebuke, there was peace again.

This is the kind of peace we can have. Even when we don't have a lot of faith - that was something Jesus pointed out about the disciples. Though he'd rather have had them believe, he brought peace to their world anyway.

When it seems like your world is spiraling out of control, remember: it is firmly established. It cannot be moved.