"Care For The Next Minute Is As Foolish As Care For A Day In The Next Thousand Years"

"The next moment is as much beyond our grasp, and as much in God's care, as that a hundred years away. Care for the next minute is as foolish as care for a day in the next thousand years. In neither can we do anything, in both God is doing everything." C.S. Lewis

Stop and think for a moment. Is there anything in life that you actually control?  Anything?!?!?  We can eat healthfully and exercise consistently, but truthfully, we do not control our next breath.  We can plan for the future and save our money, but through thievery or some other diabolical scheme, financial disaster could be right around the corner.  We may drive safely, yet we have no control over the driver who doesn’t and we could be killed in a car accident on our way to work.  We certainly cannot control relationships.  I think mankind naturally has a tendency to try and control everything in his life.  Yet, how foolish that is!  As C.S. Lewis says, “the next moment is beyond our grasp…as that a hundred years away.” 

If you are a Christian, rather than depressing you, this should actually free you.  The Christian has no reason to fear any calamity in the future.  The sooner we stop trying to control our future the more peace we experience.  Valleys will come in life, but we have a Sheppard who will lead us through.  We are sure to experience sickness or disappointment, but God is at work in every situation, for our benefit and His glory.

This is not to say that we should not plan and be wise in our daily choices.   It is important to be wise with our money, to exercise and to eat well.  Yet, we must always keep in mind that God is the Source of all that is good in our lives, that health is a gift from him, or the money we are able to save is really a gift from Him.  We need to hold our plans and our futures loosely in our hands because ultimately He is the one controlling our futures.

For whatever reason, God has given us only one thing which we can control, namely our will.  The only thing we can really control is our response to life situations.  It is so much easier to respond positively to life when we understand that the Creator of all is at work.  Chuck Swindoll wrote, 

“The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.”

What have you been trying to control?