{"id":369,"date":"2013-07-18T10:03:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T15:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=369"},"modified":"2013-08-08T11:26:07","modified_gmt":"2013-08-08T16:26:07","slug":"letting-go-of-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=369","title":{"rendered":"Letting Go of Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 15th<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

Ex 3: 13-20; Mt 11: 28-30<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cCome to me all who labor and are burdened\u2026for my yoke is easy and my burden is light\u201d.\u00a0 We hear that so many times, but do we believe it?\u00a0 It seems so hard, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s because all of us humans are wired a certain way.\u00a0 We all want to be in control- to be in control of our lives; to be in control of our destinies.\u00a0 And we want control personally. \u00a0\u00a0Turning over everything to the Lord just doesn\u2019t feel right.\u00a0 We would lose control, wouldn\u2019t we?\u00a0 And so, people work all life-long providing for themselves and their families- the job, the house, the car- because the stability of our lives is so very important to us and our independence during our earthly lives is a measure of success.\u00a0 As long as we have stability, we feel that we can control our lives and our destinies here.<\/p>\n

But, we are deceiving ourselves because we are never really in control, are we?\u00a0 All it takes is an accident, an illness, a death, a job loss, or a natural disaster to wipe out our stability and our sense of being in control.\u00a0 It has happened already to most of us, and it will happen eventually to all of us.\u00a0 And it is then we will come to realize that only God is in control.<\/p>\n

In the Exodus story, the Hebrew people were in dire straits.\u00a0 They were slaves, bogged down and beaten, and without hope.\u00a0 And then one day a man called Moses tells them that God has talked to him and told him that He the one and only Almighty God, and that if they just listen to Him and do as He says, they will be delivered from their slavery and inherit a land flowing in milk and honey!\u00a0 Just imagine how people would react in today\u2019s world if someone said that to us.\u00a0 But we know that the Exodus liberation was real.\u00a0 The people listened to Moses, albeit after many trials and tribulations, and pulled up stake in Egypt to follow Moses and Aaron into Canaan.\u00a0 That took a lot of trust.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 message today is the New Testament version of the offer by God to Moses and the Hebrew People.\u00a0 And while it may seem just as outlandish, it is the answer to our prayers in times of tribulation, just as the Exodus was the answer to the Hebrew People\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 Why? \u00a0Because the rest that Jesus offers, the land flowing with milk and honey is the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Jesus is offering us the \u201ceasy\u201d path to the kingdom and no matter what our earthly burden may be- illness, death, job loss, whatever- these things are a light burden if we are focused on our ultimate destiny to the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

Now, I am not trying to diminish the reality of the pain and suffering associated with the things of this world.\u00a0 Rather, I am just trying to put them in context.\u00a0 The path to the Kingdom of God, our ultimate destiny, can be made so much easier if we just let go and accept God\u2019s will for us because every time we try to control that path, there are consequences. \u00a0And those consequences are what can cause us the most pain and suffering in this world.\u00a0 If you are honest with yourself, you realize how true that is.\u00a0 Think of the way some people treat their own bodies; how they have relationships with the wrong people; and how the wrong job or activity gets them in real trouble\u00a0 We all make a host of choices as we go through life that\u00a0 carry consequences which can be very painful.<\/p>\n

You know, often times we suppress nudges from our consciences when we made some of those decisions.\u00a0 Those are like the call from God to Moses at the burning bush or like Jesus\u2019 message to us this morning.\u00a0 Perhaps God\u2019s way really would be easier in this life as well.\u00a0 So, let\u2019s give it a try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time Ex 3: 13-20; Mt 11: 28-30 Dc. Larry Brockman   \u201cCome to me all who labor and are burdened\u2026for my yoke is easy and my burden is light\u201d.\u00a0 We hear that so many times, but do we believe it?\u00a0 It seems so hard, doesn\u2019t it? Maybe it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}