Letting everything fall apart

What is bugging you?  What is beyond your control?  Actually, that last question isn't fair - because nothing is really under your control and if you think it is, you are most likely stressed out.

Holding it all together, are you?

Talk about a stressful job!

Am I suggesting that you let it all fall apart?  That depends.  Everything you try to "control" or hold too tightly has no real power to give you what you are looking for.  Controlling everything cannot offer you the peace and contentment that you really crave.

A few years ago, I was lying in an ER bed stressing not about my health, but about how everything would run, or not run, without me.  My home, my family, my job - all that I felt responsible to and for.

I will never forget the words a wonderful ER nurse spoke to me while I was lying in that bed - I don't even remember telling her about my worries, but she probably "smelled" them on me.  She said, "Sometimes, you just need to let everything fall apart."

For all of us controllers out there, I have never heard more freeing words.  Ever.  And I know a lot of Scripture!

So what are you trying to control that really needs no help from you?  We all want to be needed and necessary.  No one wants to know that things that we are reponsible for can actually work fine without our help.  

What would happen if you just let it all fall apart?  Is the Lord asking you to do as much?  Is He aligning things in your life so that you have no other choice but to let everything fall apart?

If so, give thanks!  He wants to ease your stress and take those burdens off your shoulders.

If you like things neat and tidy, like I do, then there will always be an underlying level a stress because things don't stay neat and tidy for long!

So whatever it is that drives you crazy, that which you just cannot control, why not let it all fall apart?  Just for fun.  See what God will do when you let Him take over that area of your life.  After all, the One who spoke the stars and planets into being - the One who maintains perfect order universally - can most assuredly handle whatever ails you.  Let Him.  I'm pretty sure He can do a better job than we.

Oh Lord, we are all so responsible!  This is a good thing, and I am not promoting irresponsibility.  But help us trust You more than our own abilities.  Help us know when it is time to let it all go and stop thinking that we can control it all.  Thank You that when we do as You say, life is much better.  Even something as simple as truly resting one day a week.  From doing that to letting it all go - even for just a bit - we will see Your awesome care and results for us that we never could have accomplished on our own.  Help us do our part, for sure, but also help us do the harder part - let go, sit back, and watch You do what only You can do.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.