Let God be in Control

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

As one who studies the Bible daily there are passages I love and passages that… well, lets just say I haven’t grown in wisdom and understanding enough to fully appreciate.  This section taken from Matthew Gospel, Chapter 11, verses 28 to 30 which is read at Mass today is just one of those passages.  I understand what is being said, I just don’t find it true for my life.  This week alone is a great example — by the time I get home tonight I will have put in (from Saturday to Wednesday) over 50 hours of work.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love my work but I do not find this yoke of ministry easy, nor do I find the burden light. 

These past few weeks we have been listening to the prophet Isaiah who, yes speaks to us today of the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, but was speaking to the Israelites who were in their final years of captivity.  They were in bondage as slaves and struggling to make through another day.  I don’t know about you but that sounds like most of us today… well, at least me.  No, I am not being held captive by a foreign power who demands my every waking hour to be in slavery to them.  But I am being held captive.  My captivity is not designed by others but by myself.

We don’t need foreign powers to make our lives difficult and sometimes unlivable.  We have our own imagine to do that for us.  The captivity of needing to please everyone, which during this holiday season can be unbearable.  When we find our meaning coming from making everyon happy…  when does the day end?  Or needing to control everything.  Yesterday one of my “bosses” had a birthday.  She is a control freak and cannot handle when the attention is not on her.  I made the mistake of making a delicious apple pie (she doesn’t like cake).  She turn an enjoyable lunch into a battlefield.  She made us all feel captive.  How about alcohol?  Food?  Gambling?  We can hold ourselves and other captives by a wide variety of things.

Advent is about realizing that God does not want that for our lives.  I don’t appreciate this passage from Matthew because I don’t like being reminded that I CHOOSE to work to hard and not always for the right reason.  I believe that God has called me into my ministry but I write the job description.  That if God wrote it I would be doing half of what I am doing and my focus would be less on the doing and more on the being.  

Give yourself a break.  Today walk away from the burdens of your life if even for a moment.  Close you eyes and just allow yourself to imagine the life God would want for you to have.  And then in the words of Captain Picard:  “Make it so.”  I remain, your servant in Christ,

Theresa