Who’s in Charge?

Most people manage life pretty well as long as most things happen the way they expect them to. The alarm clock works. There is cream for the coffee. The car starts. Even if the traffic into work is not what you would prefer, after a while you get used to it and find ways to make the most of the ride.

Even the slightest variation can throw you off, though. If the power goes off for a few minutes during the night . . . . If someone puts an empty carton back in the fridge . . . . If all you hear is a “click, click, click” when you turn the key in the ignition . . . . If there’s a fender bender (even if you’re not involved in the actual collision), it can leave you feel out of control.

Now if something really significant and unexpected happens, it calls on a whole new set of coping skills. Unfortunately, it seems that these kinds of events are occurring more frequently each day. World markets fluctuate wildly making it difficult, if not impossible, to feel confident about saving for the future. Political leaders—at home and abroad—seem intent on placing blame than on fixing the problems governments face. Even the weather seems to have become more unpredictable.

On a more personal level, “downsizing” and “underemployment” are terms that feel much more threatening now than they did a couple of years ago. You find yourself at the funeral home much more often than you would have expected. As people make accusations and raise questions about the behavior of venerable public figures, you find yourself asking, “Who can I trust?”

It is exactly in the midst of this kind of uncertainty that it is important to recall who is in charge of your life—and your destiny. The people who were living in Ephesus in the first century were experiencing greater and greater uncertainty. In the midst of their anxiety, Paul prays that they will remember “the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him,” and “the authority of Christ”—who is “far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come” (cf. Ephesians 1:19-21).

The world can seem mighty scary at times. The uncertainty can threaten to disable us. As we gather as a community of faith, let us join with Paul and pray for one another, “that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.”