Archive for November, 2008
“Don’t sweat the details.” I’ve heard that statement made several times and just never paid much attention to it. Why would I or anyone else for that matter be overly concerned with the details? If you organize your life around the principles of God’s Word; if you control your environment, being sure never to let anything in that could disrupt the balance; if you focus on what you do and who you are, striving to be the best everyday of your life, then the details just automatically take care of themselves. Right? Well, no, they don’t and I speak from experience.
There will come a day, early or late, when everything falls away and you’re left only with the details. At that moment those unimportant, minute, bothersome incidents, people, problems, etc. become your whole world. And then, what do you do with it? You find yourself sitting amidst a pile of junk. What you once thought made sense no longer does. What you thought people expected of you no longer matters. You are like a cork bobbing on the surface of a lake while the wind whips you first one way and then another. Someone or something must reel you in; indeed, they must. But who?
The good thing about this is that you can be grasping for any kind of lifeline, almost about to go under, and your faith still be intact. That may sound contradictory, but faith in God is not the issue here. The issue is lordship. That’s where the details come into play. A person may function for years within an overall structure of faith, goodness, service, and all the other things that appear right, but all the time trying to manage the details. If one is sincere in his or her commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, then at some point God will tear down the main framework in order to get to the details. Once He’s got control of the details, then you finally belong to Him; He is finally Lord of your life.
Today I sit atop my mound of details, much like Job of old, waiting for God to put it all back together. Will He? If I let Him or I can continue to bob across the waves until I go under. God reaches down as I look up and in desperation I take His hand. Gently my heavenly Father whispers, “It’s going to be OK.” And I believe Him.
Grams
