Losing control

Today we look at the first of the twelve “Signs that you are spiritually awakening” which was posted yesterday. Notice that I just used the present tense—you are spiritually awakening—rather than the past tense—you have had a spiritual awakening. The awakening itself is a process that takes time. What these twelve items suggest is what we discover happening in our lives if we are consciously practicing habits of prayer, mind and spirit that do produce a gradual spiritual awakening in us. After all, we are all in via, “on the way.” So here is the first of the list:

1. An increased tendency to let things happen rather than to make things happen.

It takes so much work, so much energy, so much preoccupation for us to serve the illusion that we are in control of what happens in our lives, or that we can exercise control to make sure that something we want happens.

 And more often than not, our efforts don’t produce the effect we wanted them to produce. Something happens. Something gets in the way. Someone foils our plans, often unwittingly. And yet, we continue to try, because the need to control things is an instinctive urge that we are born with. And for many, that need takes over and the illusion that we are, indeed, in control, runs our lives.

Consider King Herod and his reaction when he finds out that a great king has been born in Bethlehem. Right away, he sets up his program of control: the Magi are to report back to him after they have found the Christ Child, and then he will put his henchmen to work. But things don’t turn out that way, and Herod, enraged, orders the murder of all male children under the age of 2. And yet, even this doesn’t do the trick.

The Good News of the story revolves around the mysterious: angels and dreams. Joseph is warned in a dream to take his family to Egypt. The Magi are told in a dream to take a different route home to avoid Herod putting his plan into action. Herod, at last, is not in control; God is. But because of Herod’s rage, thousands of families are made to suffer.

So, with all this in mind, I have a few questions for you:

·         Do you have any programs in place to control what is happening in your life? Are you really in charge? How often to your programs succeed? And what is it costing you to live your life this way? And how are others made to suffer because of your imaginary sense of control?

·         Have you ever noticed that many if not most of the wonderful things that have happened in your life are not the result of your planning or plotting, but rather happen, it seems, by accident (or we might say, by Providence)?

·         Have you learned yet that the issues you are most concerned about, or most anxious about, tend to work themselves out in unexpected and often wonderful ways once we have let go of our desire to control and rather simply put things “in the hand of God”?

It takes practice. It takes thought. It takes prayer, especially meditation or contemplative prayer.

Here is a simple mediation for those who have never done it before: Close your eyes and pay attention to your breathing without controlling it. As you exhale, let go of your urge to control. As you inhale, inhale your faith that God is working things out. If you’d like, as you exhale, you might think the words “into your hands, O Lord,” and as you inhale, “Lord, increase my faith.”  Or else simply follow your breath and remain without words. If you’ve never done this before, try it for a minute or 2.