Pretty Box

"I've been holding on so tight,

Look at these knuckles they've gone white, 

From fighting for who I want to be,

I'm just trying to find security, 

But you say let it go, you say let it go,

You say life is waiting for the ones who lose control,

You say you will be everything I need, 

You say if I lose my life it's then I'll find my soul, 

You say let it go" -- Tenth Avenue North

I am not sure about you, but I struggle with control. Control makes things predictable...makes everything fit into nice neat little boxes. Whip out the pretty damask wrapping paper and a shiny white ribbon. Don't forget the hand lettered tags (because you are awesome like that)...

Good little children box...check
Savings for retirement, college, vacations box...check
Well maintained car box...check
Perfect marriage box...check
Clean house box...check
Home-schooled children box...check
Adequate church attendance and participation box...check
Daily Bible reading box...check

These are a nice little grouping of boxes. And they look so pretty for others to see. They will see a well ordered life... picture perfect example of what a Christian should be, right?  I mean this is what control is about, right?....making sure our lives look perfect to those around us. We will win the world for Christ through our appealing lifestyle.

But what if God asks you to let it go.  Open the boxes!  Because the life He chose for us isn't lived in a perfectly trimmed out box. Maybe it will be messy...maybe it will be hard...maybe it will involve sacrifice.

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel's will save it." --Mark 8:35

I am slowly beginning to understand the enormity of loss we have when we control our outcome; when we control what, when, where, and how things are going to happen for us and the ones we love. We seem to get this idea that God is only going to ask us to do things that are within our means.  If something takes a little more than we are comfortable with, then it couldn't possibly be God's will for us. He wouldn't ask us to give more, do more, love more, hurt more.

"He is no fool who gives what he can not keep to gain what he can not lose." --Jim Elliot

God has a beautiful story for us...and it is just right outside of our well-ordered life.  It is a story of loosing ourselves and letting go of our grip on others.  Reaching outside of our comfortable, pretty-box world and seeing the world for what it truly is. He never meant for us to sit back and enjoy comfort, safety, and security.

"If we wait until we're sure we'll do a thing purely and perfectly, we'll never accomplish the will of God on earth" -- Elisabeth Elliot

I know that at some point in your life God has or will ask you to do something beyond your control.  He is going to ask you to give more than you can give, to lose more than you want to lose,  to go where you don't want to go. He will want us to forsake that comfy, cozy feeling we have when we have everything figured out. And when He does, what will our knuckles look like?