Mastering Unexpected Change Part 3

Americans are taught, almost from birth, that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. That kind of grit and determination is a good thing. It’s one of the things that make America the greatest country on earth. But it doesn’t prepare us very well for the vagaries of human existence – the things that are completely out of our control. One of the keys to mastering unexpected change is coming to grips with our limitations as human beings and completely trusting ourselves to the will of God.

J. R. Love of Ruston Louisiana reflects on how he learned that when reading some old magazines.

On a vacation in October 2001, I was thumbing through a pile of dated magazines, and in Time magazine I stopped to read the column called Winners & Losers.

In the "Loser" category in an August 2001 issue was Rudy Giuliani, lame duck New York City mayor, suffering from crumbling health, a crumbling marriage, and a crumbling political career. What a loser, Time suggested. Who would want to be this guy?

In the "Winner" category a month earlier was Ted Olson, rising star as Solicitor General of the United States. What a winner, Time proclaimed. Who wouldn't envy this guy?

How things change. Within a matter of weeks of these two issues, Time would refer to Giuliani as the "Mayor of the World" and a "tower of strength" for his leadership in the aftermath of September 11, and a few months later the magazine would name him "2001 Person of the Year."

By contrast, we ached with Ted Olson as we watched him bury his wife, Barbara, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. No one envied him at that moment.

James 4:13-15 says, 13) Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14) Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15) Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." (NIV)

The great temptation for many of us is the temptation to control. We want to do A and get B and we expect God to cooperate with our plan. We want our kids to be perfect, our colleagues to follow through and our partners to please us – all the time. Funny when you think about it, that “a mist and a vapor” should have such pretensions. But we do and it’s a lousy way to deal with change. Better, much better, to embrace the humility that says, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”