Control

Control

Since starting my job as a Correctional Officer this year I have been working quite a bit. I started off as part time and could pretty much pick up shifts wherever I wanted and as much as I wanted. And, because I just tend to do things like this, I ended up working, on average, around 48 hours a week. I recently moved to full time and actually feel like I work less; I know, it's weird. 

Anyway, because I have been basically living at my job there have been a few things about it that have been heavy on my mind.

To fully understand this, I am going to have to explain a couple things about how my job actually works. At the jail I work at we have what's known as the 'control room'. This is the room where you can, you guessed it, basically control the building.  By this I mean that, when you are stationed in control, you are in charge of watching all the cameras, regulating those who come in and out of the building and, mainly, opening all the doors. 

On pretty much every single door in the entire building there are intercoms. So if you need to get through the door you just push the button, which then goes to control. Whoever is in control then sees who is going through the door on the camera and lets them through. 

This gives the person in this position a lot of control (see, we call it that for a reason, pretty smart huh?). Anyway, this got me to thinking about my own life and who is in control. I decided when I was pretty young that I wanted God to be in control of my life. However, the older I get and the more I continue to do life, the more I realize that's more often than not a pretty challenging thing. 

If we're looking at life, your personal lives that is, as set up in the same manner as the jail I work at (just stick with me for a minute on this one) than it matters a lot who is in your control room. 

When working, it is highly dependent on who is in control for how fast you will get through a door. This has a tendency to test your patience to the max. Think about it, when you want to get from one room to another, usually all you have to do is turn the doorknob and you're through. Trust me, when you are not the one in control of when the door opens that you want to get through, 10 seconds feels like forever! 

You have to realize something though, the person sitting in control is the one who knows what's going on in the rest of the building. There may be something else that they need to be more focused on in that moment. You have to learn to trust that they know what they are doing. 

In life, I try to always keep God in my control room. I want him to be the one letting me through doors, watching where I am going, and sending others to help me if I need. When God is in control I have to trust that doors will open when he is ready to open them for me. He knows best. He knows what's behind every door and if, and when, I should be getting to the other side. 

Obviously this isn't an, always-applies-and-always-makes-sense analogy, but it did put some things into perspective for me. Realistically, the person in the control room at the jail can just forget that someone needs to get through a door; God will never forget about anyone. The person in control can't always focus and put all their attention on everyone in the building at all times; God is more than capable of seeing everyone always. The person in control can get stressed out, overwhelmed, confused, and can definitely make mistakes; God is all powerful and is incapable of any of those things. 

For those reasons right there, I will always want God in control of my life. If I try and let others sit in the control room of my life, I will most definitely not end up where I need to be. If I try to do it all myself, forcing my way through doors and just guessing where I should be going, I will only end up getting hurt. 

Trusting that God knows best and will help guide me in every moment is the most challenging. It is so much easier for me to think that I know what is best; I want to get through the door when I want to get through the door. Patience with God will always pay off in the end. 

My challenge to you this week is to think long and hard about who you allow to be in control of your life. Does it depend on the day or circumstance of what and who will benefit you most? Is it always you because you let your wants in the moment dictate every decision you make? Is it your best friend because they seem to be doing so much better at life and should therefor make your decisions as well? There are infinite options for who can be in control of your life. 

But really, there is only one that truly matters. Let God be in control. Make the decision daily to give him control of every situation you go through. Trust that God's got it. 

Song: Control - Tenth Avenue North