Loss of Control
I remember the days of corporate meetings and frustrations. A friend told me of a meeting the other day. He got his new compensation plan in that meeting. The presenter asked if there were any questions about the compensation plan. Jerry asked; “are there any questions that would cause a change in the plan.” They answered “no”. So Jerry said: “Well then I don’t have any questions.” I could feel his frustration.
Then a little later, another person was talking about their annual planning and budgeting meeting. He said at some point he just wanted to say to senior management “just give me the numbers and we will find a way to get there.” Again there was frustration. Then the source of frustration dawned on me: loss of control. You know for all of us there comes a time when it dawns on us that we have limited control. In that moment it can become either a growing moment or a self defeating moment. It can result in a self defeating attitude, or it can result in a resolve for us to focus on what we can do.
In Ecclesiastes is a verse about casting your bread upon the water. It is about doing your part. Solomon is speaking about doing good works to the poor, and in doing the work without over thinking.
In the casting of my bread upon the water, it is not lost, but well laid out, and well laid up; it brings me to understand the providence of God, and graces and comforts of his Spirit; for the principal is sure, laid up in heaven, for it is lent to the Lord.
Ecclesiastes is a long lament of the wisest and wealthiest man of his time. Here he speaks of what he can control and he cannot control. He cannot control the weather or many other things, but he can plant. My two friends could lament about not having control, but it is wise to focus on what they can do. As a pastor I must come to grips with my lack of control, and then I remember what John Wesley said, “Do all the good you can, for as long as you can, to all the people you can.” In doing so I step past my own frustrations of what I can and cannot control and realize and remember all at once that God is good, and He is in control.
Ecclesiastes 11:1
11 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for after many days you will find it again.
2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight,
for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain upon the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there will it lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.