It’s so easy to feel frustrated and powerless in this time of “crisis”. The world seems to be flying apart, out of control, exploding before our eyes. We anxiously and desperately look for a way to fix it, convince people of the fallacy of the fear that is everywhere. And we just can’t see a way out of it. There seems to be no hope.
This “control” we seek of our world, is a fallacy itself. The truth is, we have no control over the world, never have. We plan and plan and plan, only to see it all go down the tube. We see the overwhelming “power” of politicians, media, TV; and we feel totally incapable of fighting it.
Well, the truth is, we ARE totally incapable of controlling the world. The control we thought we had of our lives has always been a delusion.
The control of life is not our place. Really, only God has control. The “power”, “influence”, and “control” that people think they have……is nothing. In Scripture is the story that Jesus told of the man who decided to pull down his barn to build a bigger one. Then he would be “safe” and secure. The Lord then said what a fool he was. He didn’t know that his life would end that very night.
In this season of Advent, we read about Mary. This little girl, probably in her early to mid teens, was nothing as our world judges worth. She lived in a little shack in Nazareth, betrothed to a poor carpenter, going about her daily life of household chores, possibly working in the garden. She had no ability at all to change the world around her, seemingly destined to an obscure life of a peasant.
Then……the Angel Gabriel appeared to her, saying “Hail, full of Grace”. And the entire universe was changed forever by her simple words: “Let it be to me according to your word”.
Silly humans. Why are we anxious?