Spared no Expense

In the movie Jurassic Park, John Hammond the creator of the park says he, "Spared no expense." I would argue, he believed by spending all the money he did he could control the creature in the park. The truth of the matter was made clear in the response, that it was all an illusion, he never had control. As the story unfolds, we see that he didn't. Even if the park hadn't had been compromised at that time the park wasn't under the control of man. We are given the idea that the park would have eventually gone array. 

This thought of lack of control brought me back to something I have been thinking about lately. The illusion of self-control in our own lives. We delude ourselves into thinking we can control our own lives. Science has shown, we will even rewrite our memories to line up with what we want to believe. The Bible teaches we want to be in control. We want to control ourselves and others. We, shall I say it, want to be a god. The problem is of course we aren't god. We will never be a god and neither will anyone else. 

We need help. We need other people to help us. Ultimately though, most of us want to be in control or at least choose our version of lack of control (overeating, drunkenness, shopping, etc.). This is why counseling is so popular (Understand, I'm not downplaying the importance of counseling, it's important.), but we go to someone in the hope they will help us regain control when what we really need to do is to let go. 

 The solution is giving control to God. This is what it means in Romans 10:9 when we confess Jesus as Lord. We make him the boss. We give him control. The strange thing is by giving up control to God, we actually gain control. When we, as Jesus put it, lose our lives we gain them. For Christians, the ongoing struggle is letting Jesus stay in charge, walking in the Spirit as Paul puts it. 

By the way, if you've taken back control it's easy to give it back to God. Yes, walking this way doesn't mean there isn't work and hardship, there is, but what it does give is freedom.