E-votional - The Control
August 17, 2001
Verse:
And he said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fish for people."
- Matthew 4:19 (NRSV)

Thought:
When we are told to do something, often times we see it as a chore or direction.  This is especially true for people who like to be in control.  It is at this point that the opportunity for learning and for something special to happen just does not.  Control or the seeking of it, like many things in life, can cause us to focus so much on what we don't have, but feel the need for, and create a defensive and even aggressive inner being.  Walls then are built up and our own personal, inner needs and craving become unknown to us and opportunities to meet those needs fall upon deaf ears.
Hear the Good News, Jesus and the Word He brought contained and contains more than chores and directions, it contains a living experience.  As we hear this message, we find, if we listen that it not only speaks to us as individuals, but seeks us and finds us.  When this happens we find that it causes us to do something different.  When the fishermen heard the message of Christ, it touched them in such a way that the needs, hope and dreams were in fact met.  These person needs, the breaking of walls and freedom that ensued, was so profound that they hoped to make that same type of difference in another's life.  Freedom from the self-inflicted prison of control, or what ever element of the human condition that left them seeking searching and questioning, these first disciples left the life they knew for a new life to know.  The message of the Gospel and the call upon our life is not to issue directions or rules, it is, "to invite us to still our hungers and thirsts at its table."

Prayer:
Gracious Father, free me from myself and allow me to hear and experience You.  Bless me and keep me, make Your face to shine upon me all the while being gracious unto, that I might know peace. Thank you Father, for all You have done and all You will continue to do in my life.  Amen.