sunsets and control

So next door to me is the cutest little girl I think I've ever seen. Her name is Makala. She's mulatto, so her skin is beautiful. Her hair is a little black fro, and she runs around smiling all the time. I'm guessing she's six. She's a big fan of the Bank's house trampoline, and is an almost permanent fixture on it. Tonight, she knocked on the door asking for some paper towels. I would have given her anything at the moment i think...I've never been much of a baby sitter, but I'm seriously thinking about offering to...

Tonight the sunset was amazing. Maybe you saw it too...i laid on the trampoline and watched the low grey clouds mix with the blue sky and the fading orange and pinks, all mixing together. There's much beauty in the simple moments of life. God's glory is everywhere...we just have to look. The 5 minutes of gazing at the beauty seemed to calm the hours of stress from the day. We are created to gaze upon beauty. Eternity is going to rock.

I love watching sunsets, because I get this overwhelming sense that God is in control. Thus I'm not. Watching sunsets ask the question, "Nathan, will you release control to me again with xyz?"
Recently, I heard God whisper this about control...."you'll find my rest when you release the right to control your life to me." There's the catch. God lets us control our life to a certain extent. We have freewill to decide want we want in life, and do everything in our power to control and manipulate people and situations to get what we think we need. Our very American culture prizes the ability to set our minds on some goal, and do everything we can to achieve it.

BUT we live in an upside-down Kingdom. Those who desire to save their life will loose it. Those who lose it will gain it in the end. I beginning to believe that God's plan for my life is abundantly greater that ANYTHING I can think or imagine. Thus when I find myself fearing and worrying, trying to get something i think I need, I hear Papa's voice... "Will you release your right to control your life. Do you believe my plan for you is the best? Do you trust me?

When we offer our lives completely to Him, we become who we were created to be - lovers of God and one another. I love what Andrew Murry says about our purpose in life:

"Man's chief care, his highest virtue, and his only happiness, now and throughout eternity, is to present himself as an empty vessel in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.".....Manifest His love.

Releasing control brings us back to the garden. It brings us to peace. Fear is replaced with trust. Control is replaced with unconditional love.

Go watch a sunset - release control. Then do it all over again. Until the day we die, we will always be learning how to trust God more and more with every bit our lives. Lets start now though...