I’m usually quite a planner. If I have an idea of where stuff is going, I’m okay. But, throw me in a situation where anything could happen… well… let’s just say I’ve been known to dissolve into a useless puddle of tears and indecision.

The good side of all this (at least the part that seems more flattering, to be perfectly honest) is that I’m extremely intentional and as a parent of four kids at the moment (we confuse people since the number changes since we foster), there is no other way that I could do this.

The downside though of this personality quirk (flaw?) is that I’m not very good with trust. I mean, seriously, you should see me when the baby wipes aren’t in the diaper bag…

Which is why this post is a bit funny. I actually had another one written and planned for today.

Then some stuff started happening…

And life this week changed from last week. And it won’t be settled for a long time.

It is all fine, so please don’t worry, but things that were solid are now floating up in the air and I’m not sure where they are going to land.

It isn’t really about the things that may be changing in my life. We all go through periods of this kind of upheaval so I’m sure you can relate. The truth is, seldom do so many things all become question marks all at the same time without some greater purpose.

As I was editing the other article, all of a sudden, I didn’t feel as great about it anymore. I felt like God was nudging me and saying, “Later. Today, it is about Me.”

Everyday is supposed to be about Him, really. But today, I’m supposed to say it. We need to trust Him entirely, unashamedly, and unreservedly.

I’m not sure right now how things are going to unfold and usually, I would be panicky and trying to nail things down as soon as possible. This time though, it is all out of my hands. It is in God’s. And I need to put my hand into His and just hold on.

His hands are big enough to hold everything; He created it after all.

The truth is every time I try to hold on so tightly to what is going on and to manipulate it into some form that I find acceptable and controllable, I miss the point. My focus falls from God onto myself. It really is somehow laughable that I think I am better able to control this than God.

It really boils down to submission.

Yes. That horrible, ugly word according to our culture: submission.

Trust and submission go hand in hand and this is what our culture has wrong. We think submission is about dominance and has wrongly been used that way. Submission is about giving rightful headship to whom it belongs and seeing ourselves as we truly are: broken, fallen sinners.

In marriage, it is as much of a responsibility to be submitted to as it is to submit. In other relationships, believers are called to mutually submit. The point isn’t dominance; it is harmony with a Christ-focus.

The chapter where we get these instructions from the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5 starts out differently than most people would expect. Verses one and two read:

” Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.“

Christ Himself submitted to God’s will. If Christ can do that, I can submit too. After all, we are commanded to be imitators of God.

Our submission is based on trust since He loved us first so much so He sent Christ to die for us. The more we all imitate Christ, the less wrestling for dominance will even enter our minds.

And I need to stop wrestling for dominance since that is the essence of control when I don’t know where things are going. We all do.

Maybe you think you don’t do this. I thought I didn’t for a while too. Then I finally understood that worry is a passive form of it. We carry the weight ourselves since we think we bear responsibility for how things turn out instead of giving it to God. That is what grace is.

I wasn’t expecting such a crazy week, but God moves fast sometimes in moving us where He needs us. Change is a powerful way to get our attention. And sometimes, it means we need to change what we are thinking… and writing about for the week…

Whether things turn out perfectly or horrifically when we are walking with Him, we can trust He has His purposes in it. What matters is that we walk with Him and trust Him along the journey He chooses to take us on. It might be easy or it could have periods of upheaval. But, one thing is certain: God is good and worthy to be trusted.

We don’t need to know where this is all going.

We’d appreciate prayer as we try to discern what God wants for us as we make some decisions in the near future!