I know we’ve all been there. Maybe you are there right now. I go there just about every other week—to that place where I believe every aspect of my life must be PERFECT! Per.fect. PERFECT, I SAY!
And of course, it’s not.
The house: Why doesn’t my house look like Pottery Barn catalogs? How did the laundry pile get so big? Everyone is going to judge me because of my baseboards! I’ll be a social outcast!
My job: How could I make such a silly mistake on that report? Why did I just CC the wrong person? I’m going to get fired and have to live under a bridge. I’ll be homeless, friendless, and penniless by midnight!
My appearance: What is my hair doing up there? What is that THING on my face? And why, oh why, OH WHY, did I eat that cookie yesterday? These pants must have shrunk in the dryer!
And then there’s my family: Who are these people? There is no way that my amazing parenting skills and super-star genetics could have produced the two creatures who are simultaneously upending my furniture and leaving a trail of snot and cracker crumbs across every surface they come in contact with. Surely there was a mix-up at the hospital and my sweet, dry-nosed, clean-fingered, angel children are somewhere out there.
So…while my mind craves perfection, I find myself swimming in a sea of house/job/appearance/family CHAOS.
And I know what my problem is—it’s not a secret. I am craving control of everything around me. I want to be in charge. I want ultimate control. I want to be…God. Of course—this is nothing new.
We saw this when Satan turned traitor in heaven. We saw this when Eve ate the apple. We saw this at the Tower of Babel, at the edge of the Promised Land, and in Nineveh. We want control. We crave it, fight for it, and throw gigantic hissy-fits when we lose it.
But what’s a girl to do? There are so many things going on each and every day. So many things to juggle, to track, to manage: work, laundry, schedules, meal planning, Bible reading, time with God, time with kids, time with our husband, and time with friends. We are pulled in so many directions and under so much pressure to keep every aspect of our life in PERFECT ORDER. Perfect house, perfect kids, perfect hair, perfect life—all managed and arranged ever so carefully by US. But no matter how perfect it may look on the outside, we all know that we’re just ducks on a pond. Calm on the top, but paddling madly under the surface just to keep going.
What’s the answer to all the madness? Move off the grid and find a quiet cabin in the Ozarks where no one can judge my less-than-perfect baseboards? Buy a wig, hire a maid, and max out my credit cards to maintain the perfect façade? No—though each of those options are tempting!
What’s the answer? Say it with me now. JESUS. He is the answer.
How do I know this? Because the Bible tells me so!
Isaiah 45:6-7
That people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.
1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.
Jeremiah 10:6-7
There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you.
When I am tempted to believe that I should be in control of my life, that I should have dominion over each aspect of my existence, I need only go to the Scriptures to see who Jesus is. He is the King. He is Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Completer. Alpha and Omega. Scripture shows us from Genesis to Revelation that Jesus is King over all.
And I am not.
So when my life feels out of control, when my house looks like a hoarder’s nightmare, when my pants are too tight, and when I’m tempted to sell my children to the next circus that rolls through town, it’s time to stop and give the control back to One who it belongs to.
Jesus,
Take my life, take the crazy and the overwhelming, take the good and the bad. I give all control to you. The Earth is Yours, and everything in it. Lead me, guide me, sustain me and grant me the peace to release my life into Your hands. You are the Loving King and the Good Father.
