Control. Changing your life. Controlling your stuff. Deciding what’s best for you.

Uh-huh.

That’s where we think we live. It’s my life. (Well, at least Jon Bon Jovi thinks so.) But is it really?

I woke up thinking about the sense of control we have. The ‘we get to,’ entitlement. After all, it’s our life, right?

How is it followers of Jesus tend to forget we’re stewards of our lives? Here for a brief time, our lives are shorter than our eternity. Jesus wants us to make the most of our lives. The two greatest things are loving God first, then loving others. If we aren’t doing the first, we cannot, no matter how hard we try, do the second.

I am secure in my shortcomings. They are mine. I know them by name. And I’m pretty sure they are categorized, cataloged, and filed alphabetically somewhere in my mind.

All I am required to do is show up. That’s it. I get back in the car, drive another research participant to another appointment. And somewhere in ordinary parts of my life, God is working on me. Like a forger works metal. God’s fire is not a punishment. It’s a process.

All I’m doing is showing up.

Jesus is still working on me.

All I know is the hard stuff I’ve lived through is survivable because Jesus was there. Sitting with me. Walking with me. Loving me in my mess.

Is there a way I can replicate that for you? Love you like he loves me?

That’s the hard part.