We get into lots of problems when we try to control the world. We also waste a lot of energy on things we can’t control. You can devise a great strategy and even pray all night that the sun will not come up, but it will. When the north wind blows, you can say and do anything you want, but it’s going to blow. The best thing to do is to find your heavy coat.
A nervous passenger once asked the captain of an ocean liner what would happen if the ship hit an iceberg. “Nothing,” replied the captain. “The iceberg would move right along as if nothing happened.” That’s the way life is — it’s going to move right along.
None of us controls the universe. Even if we did, how would we know what was good or what was bad? Even Garth Brooks understood that. He sang a song entitled “Thank God for Unanswered Prayers.” I can identify with that. Do you remember being in high school or college and being in hormone heaven — you just had to marry that particular person, but it didn’t work out? You were devastated and thought, “How can life go on?” Then many years later you saw the person and thought, “Thank God for unanswered prayers!”
Life is like a parade. We see only what is in front of us, but God sees the whole parade. He has a greater perspective than we have. My favorite football team hired a great coach and paid him millions of dollars. But if you watch him on the sidelines, he has a headset on and he’s taking advice from an assistant coach who is up in the press box. Why? Because the coach knows that the other guy has a better perspective.
I often feel like that. Many times I don’t understand what’s going on down here. I need someone who looks at life from above.
Let me explain it this way: A little boy had a toy boat that he played with at the pond. One day his boat drifted away from him, and he tried everything he could to get it back, but he couldn’t reach it. All of a sudden, as he was watching the boat and trying to figure out what to do, he saw a man throwing rocks at the boat. The little boy turned around in anger and said, “What are you trying to do, sink my boat? What are you doing?” The man just smiled and kept throwing rocks. The little boy yelled, “Quit it!” Finally he ran to the man. “What are you doing?” The man replied, “I’m trying to help you.” “What do you mean trying to help me? You’re going to wreck my boat.” The man said, “Look at your boat.” As the boy looked at his boat, he realized that the man was throwing the rocks over his boat. The ripples in the water were bringing his boat back to the shore.
What’s the bottom line? Resign. Resign as general manager of planet Earth. With your hand over your heart, repeat these words: “I, being of sound mind, do fully realize and admit that I do not now, nor have I ever, nor will I ever, run planet Earth. Therefore, I hereby offer my resignation as general manager of planet Earth.”
Feel better already, don’t you? Now that you’ve resigned, remember that rocks can create ripples, and that God sees the whole parade. Believe me, that makes the clowns of life’s parade a whole lot funnier.