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you are not in control

Posted by: geoffreybaines | February 11, 2010 | 4 Comments |

Welcome to the conversation.

You are not in control.

So states the fourth elemental truth.

Sorry to point this out.

Mark Earls perhaps offers an illustration of this truth as he comes to the end of his excellent read; he is referring to marketing but he might as well be making a more vital remark to life as a whole:

No, the best we can hope to do is cast a pebble on the water. Choose the pebble wisely, choose how to throw it but once the stone leaves your hand we have to let go. Watch its flight, by all means, but then sit back and watch the ripples it creates roll across the water. (Herd)

A comment on life and a comment on the gospel.

There is a self-organising dimension to the gospel, the thing that happens when the gospel is welcomed into a life. Christian Schwarz refers to this as the all-by-itself principle, from Mark 4:26-29, from the lips of Jesus:

This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then thehead, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.

I believe this self-organising or all-by-itself characteristic of the gospel manifests itself in different ways in different communities and persons. If we trust what God is doing in people’s lives and they respond as only they can, then we need to admit that something far more impressive then we could imagine is taking place.

Here, then, the well chosen pebble is the gospel, and the water the world and throw is the way only we can live it and share it.

You are not in control …

But …

There is more to be seen for those who know this, who receive and pass on the gospel.

But we must pick up the right pebble.

And we must throw it (pass it forward) as only we can.

It seems that Paul knew a thing or three about not being in control, so I’ll leave you with this thought:

I have been crucified with the Liberating King … the Libertor is living in me, and whatever life I have left in this failing body I live by the faithfulness of God’s Son (Galatians 2:20; The Message).

What do you think?

under: Uncategorized

Responses -

What are the first three, if this is the fourth?

I can accept not being in control in some aspects of life more easily than others. I’m happily patient in waiting rooms, and will accept the wisdom of medics. At 8am on any school morning however, I am often very frustrated at having little control: I do not want to just sit and watch pebbles, I dive in after them and raise a storm.

With the gospel, it is sometimes hard to know how and when to catch the right waves.

Jonathan is using the ‘Game of Life’ computer model in a couple of weeks to illustrate the possibilities of FX – some work, some keep changing, some trail off and some die very quickly.

By: Fiona on February 11, 2010
at 1:40 pm

Hello Fiona, there are five:

1) Life is hard;
2) You are not as important as you think;
3) Your life is not about you;
4) You are not in control;
5) You are going to die.

Each of these is incomplete and Jesus completes them; you might like to suggest ways in which they are completed.

As for your diving in, that’s great. We are the gospel to others – we can’t get away from this. We are inextricably linked with what it is we share, so jump on in and raise the storm.

But, as Jonathan’s “Game of Life” shows, we cannot control what happens. It is also underlines how it is important to throw many pebbles (or jump in many times) as there will be many results.

By: geoffreybaines on February 12, 2010
at 10:50 am

” All by itself….” things grow and happen – have observed that but have just come back from church where we were told that the Christian faith is a battle which we have to fight to get the message of teh gospel across – not sure this is what Jesus was saying.
At times ‘church’ does not seem to be representing the Jesus I have come to know..perhaps its me that should not be there any more?

By: Susan on February 14, 2010
at 9:37 pm

Hello Susan,

What with the problems with the new Vox site I have not been able to reply to this on the blog. My apologies for this. I’m not sure if it will even recognise me, but here goes.

You are on a journey. It is a journey that enables you to see things more clearly than those around you. When you share the things you are seeing, others struggle to believe you; they still see things as they are. But you know this movement of God is centred on Jesus Christ and following in his way leads us to the things that we ought to be about. I was reading recently of his master plan for conquering the world. It didn’t contain buildings and finances and councils. It did contain loving our enemies and do good to those who have it in for you. Here’s our curriculum question; How do we become that kind of person?

Keep journeying.

By: geoffreybaines on April 29, 2010
at 5:27 am

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