The Illusion of Control

What if every moment of our lives has been predetermined since the beginning of time and every action and decision we make has already been foreknown? How would you feel about that?

Nobody likes the thought of someone else giving orders over us or, at the very least, we don't want to feel like we have no control over our own lives, decisions, actions, or even our own bodies. There is the feeling within our bones that wants to be liberated from authority and to have our own autonomy. We want to have power over our lives, we don't want to be bossed around.

I believe that's the main tension within us with regard to the concept of God's sovereignty - of having an all-powerful, all-knowing creator defining the rules about everything, and I believe the reason for this internal struggle is that by our very nature, we are rebellious.

If we think about it, things should be simple. Life should have been simple. But why is it so complicated for us today? And I say it's complicated in the sense that, we have to fight for every individual "right" that we feel entitled to in order for us to attain happiness because we think that when we get our way, everything would be perfect.

We don't want authorities to trample over our rights, we don't want our parents to interfere with our decisions and desires, we don't want anybody telling us what to do because we think we know what we want and what's best for us. Which was the main point of contention in the garden of Eden.

Where does this leave us now? An increasing emphasis on individualism, relativism, and pluralism. Basically, you do what makes you happy and I do what makes me happy. As long as you don't meddle with my life and dictate what's right and wrong, we can agree to live in peace.

Of course, the truth tells us that we don't get to do whatever we want with our lives and escape the consequences. It is only fair that our actions would have a resulting reward or punishment but considering that our intent has always been toward wickedness, there's no debate on what the repercussions would be. And that's where the gospel comes in, imputing upon us the best gift that any human could get: salvation through faith in Christ.

Now, we have to understand that all of these things have never left God's purview because He has foreseen everything that would happen from the moment that Adam and Eve fell to sin to the last days so even the very faith that we profess comes from God and was caused by God to happen. That's the fundamental truth that we have to accept about life.

But this does not mean that since God is in control over everything that we're robots doing His bidding because He has also given us free will. If God were making all the decisions for us, we wouldn't even have the chance of sinning because His will is for us to be holy like He is. However, the issue with thinking that we're like God's puppets or robots is that we still sin in our hearts, in our minds, in our words, and in our actions even though we are Christians.

What changes then when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and become a new creation is that we accept our hopelessness and decide to resist temptation and to forego our secret impulses to rebel against God and to choose to do what pleases Him instead through the help of the Holy Spirit.

Our minds become renewed and turn away from justifying the wrong things, saying that it's not as bad as we think, to agreeing with God that sin is wrong and that there is no excuse so we resolve to turn to God instead when temptations come so that He can give us strength to overcome.

The issue with thinking that we have control or that we need to have control over our lives is that life does not work that way. We were not created to run along and get ourselves drunk and debauched until we are filled because those things will never fill us.

We will never really feel free when we think we're doing what we want because then we would be enslaved by the very things that we think free us. On the other hand, if we commit our lives instead to God who created us and knew what we were designed for, then we can be free to do exactly what we were designed to do.

Some people don't want to submit to God's authority because they think they are relinquishing their autonomy for it. But imagine this, God has given us the only thing that He cannot control -- our free will -- so that we can choose between Him, the greatest good and desire that our soul longs for, or everything else that can never satisfy.

Those are the only choices that we have. And the difference between those two choices is that one leads to deep and eternal satisfaction while the other leads to utter ruin.