April 22, 2010

Control Freak

Are you? Do you find yourself needing to be in control and having a hard time when you're not? How do you handle things that are beyond your control?

During my run this morning a song by Modest Mouse came up on shuffle that talks about God being a control freak. This got me thinking a little bit...do you think He is? What does the relationship between faith and control look like for you? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

4 comments:

Kyle Dinwiddie said...

figured i'd give my 2 cents.

I wouldn't call God a control freak, only because he is God and obviously has to have some sort of control... because he is God.


I mean, I think he ISN'T a control freak because we have free will and the ability to choose him or choose the world.

I'd say that I naturally desire to be in control when I think I could do something better- pride talking. And when things aren't in my control, I have to just trust that God's will is done through whatever it is- which is hard, but what else can I do if it's out of my control..

I remember coming home from spring break with a friend who's dad was driving in rain basically like a maniac, and all I could do was believe it was in God's hand if we crashed and died haha

Jack Lugar said...

Isn't He just the opposite? God could have controlled everything we did, and then we wouldn't be in this mess. Instead He gave us free will and the ability to control our own destiny.

God has the ability to control everything and essentially chooses not to control anything until it is given to Him.

Joe Garrison said...

I agree with Jack.

God is the least controlling person I can think of actually. He didn't MAKE me come to Christ, he didn't MAKE me follow Him. He also didn't FORCE me to brush my teeth this morning or get up and go to work.

God controls nothing in our life unless we allow him to. Most Christians pray for God's "control" through guidance by the Holy Spirit. We wish God would control us a little more so we wouldn't make so many stupid decisions in life. God however will not "control" us unless we specificly ask him into our life and allow him to controll us. Even then I use the word controll very loosely because it is more our desire to follow his will and not our own.

Just my thought.

Matt Lipan said...

Kyle, Jack Lugar, Joe Garrison: thanks for your comments. they seem to all agree that God is certainly not a control freak.

i'd be curious to hear any thoughts on the relationship between faith and control, if there are any to share.