One year ago we were hit with what many describe as a once in a lifetime storm, Super Storm Sandy. I hope they are right, whoever “they” are. But I don’t know if they are correct or not. Nobody does. Its just a way to try to alleviate fears and to instill hope. But the truth is…we just don’t know. We cannot predict the future weather or climate patterns and even more so, we cannot control them. It’s actually kind of interesting to me. We have made such unimaginable progress in technology, medicine and economics. We have landed men on the moon, cured multiple diseases and discovered amazing dimensions of the sub atomic world…yet we cannot stop a hurricane, divert a tornado or extinguish a lightning strike. Humans are amazing creatures…the most amazing of all of God’s creation. But there are still limitations and still things, like weather, we cannot control. We cannot control what other people think or do. We cannot control how people respond to us. We cannot control time. We cannot control the past or the future. We cannot control where we are born, the parents we are born to, the place where we are born, the family we are born in or the things that our family may do..or not do. We cannot control the non voluntary functions of our bodies, such as our heart beating or our breathing. We cannot control how well someone else does a job and we cannot how poorly someone may act. We cannot control other people’s faith decisions, their life decisions or their morals and values. We cannot control the spinning of the earth, the shining of the stars, the orbiting of the moon or the changing of the seasons. We cannot control the waving of the ocean, the flight of the seagull or the hibernating of the bear. We cannot control God. Period. And this is just a short list of things we cannot control.

I guess what I am trying to say is this. We could not stop Hurricane Sandy from coming ashore. All we could do is prepare the best we could before she hit, and respond and rebuild the best we could after she hit. Beyond that, Sandy was out of our control.

So much in life is out of our control. It is wise to know what those things are. How I prepare and how I respond is all up to me…it is my choice. Joshua said it so well: “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

It would be wise for us to choose to serve the One who is in control of everything, weather included, the One who cannot be controlled by anything or anyone, but is Himself, the essence of all things. The great “I Am” of existence and life. We can only prepare and respond, relying on Him for wisdom, strength, grace and love to help us deal with those things in life that we cannot control. I think it makes sense to know the difference between what we cannot control and Who is ultimately in control. It may be the difference between having a bad day and a good day, the difference between sorrow and joy, the difference between despair and hope.

What do you think?