Terry’s Take… On Control – and Love
It’s just one of those things,” my grandma used to say all the time. It meant that she heard, but she had no helpful comment or answer to my dilemma. This often irritated me, because I wanted to change the circumstances immediately, and that was outside our control. And control is a concept I covet, especially when I see my flaws.
Jesus calls us on a mission to love the world in all its woundedness and failure, just as he has loved us in our woundedness and failure. He doesn’t call us to fix it or control it but to love it.
Really? I’d rather jump to resolutions rather than sit uncomfortably with my weakness. I want to always “right” the past “wrongs” in my behaviour.
But time can’t be rewound. And I know God doesn’t want me to sit in shame over past mistakes. God wants me to love myself despite my failings.
Rather than turn to love, I’m tempted to self-absorption and wheel-spinning over ways I might overhaul things. Or I might deny I caused harm and shove my culpability under a rock. God offers another way.
Look to me, not at yourself.
Look to my wonderful, powerful, and glorious majesty.
Keep your eyes fixed on me.
If you look to yourself, you will always be disappointed.
I love you in your woundedness and failures. I love the people who annoy you and irritate you with their woundedness and failures. I want you to love them too.
Jesus invites me to join him as he loves everyone—no exceptions. I get to choose to participate in this quest for love, which I will fail at times, and that is OK. Jesus uses everything for good, and only God loves perfectly.