When I Ruled

I used to rule the world.  My experience was my world, and I never gave much thought to the wide world beyond its borders.  But the wide world was there and not much concerned about me.  I was like Alexander the Great who ruled the world as he knew it.  In time, I woke up, but that waking took many years.  I am still grappling with the realities of the world beyond my control. 

When I was truly young, every day was a shiny new dime.  In those times, I was more confident in my answers and feared no repercussions.  “The awe and majesty of kings,” Shakespeare wrote.  How did things slip away, and where were the lines of demarcation?  Living brings lost innocence, cynicism and a certain fear.  The world beyond our control exacts a price.  There are many things I wish I had known when I was younger, but there is much of my youth for which i pine. 

The Bible has a lot to say about the frailty and futility of life.  There is much in living that mocks us.  That fact produced a real despair in many biblical writers.  It does the same for people today.  Much potential is wasted or lost as lives spiral out of control.  Promise is not productivity, and many cannot face or deal with the disparity between the two.  God’s Word teaches us that life is brief, and we strain against the leashs of our limitations.  These are inconvenient truths of living, but truths they are. 

A useful approach for living is to stop trying to control everything.  That’s easier said than done even if you leave worrying out of the equation.  When our children were small, we read a book to them that taught, “Do your best and leave the rest.” In a way, that’s what the Good Book teaches us all.  We do our best in a fallen world and with broken tools.  The rest we humbly commit to our God and ask His aid.  Because He empathizes with us, God never reprimands us when we come to Him and gives grace to help in need. 

When I ruled the world, it was small with defined boundaries.  The larger world is harder to manage.  Even with OCD tendencies, I must admit I can’t control it.  I need to learn to stop trying to control everything and let the God of the past reign in my present.  It’s not my world.  I’m just living in it. 

Sterl