Tightrope

Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Luke 12:22-26

I am reading this book,
it is one of those self-help books,
written by one of those self-help gurus,
who teaches that we are all in control
of our own destinies,
that we ‘allow’ the bad things
which happen to us,
how it’s all just a matter of attitude,
and to change the circumstances
we find ourselves in,
we need only change how we view
the people and situations around us,
I believe there is some truth in this;

but;

I’m not sure how this explains starving children in Africa,
lying with their stomachs distended and bloated,
staring up at the camera with dead bulging eyes,
or a young bride in Cancun,
struck down dead by a lightning bolt on her honeymoon,
or a hundred other stories so tragic,
so terrible and horrific,
people don’t even like talking about them,
because it makes them remember
that we aren’t in control of anything;

and we never were.

It is only our human arrogance
which tells us otherwise,
when the truth is something much simpler,
something beyond anything we can see or touch,
that there is only so much to go around,
and what gives to one takes from another,
that we’re all circus performers,
walking slowly along the stretched tightrope,
that all our planning, all our worrying,
cannot add a single hour to the length of our lives,
that there will never be any true happiness,
until we place our trust in the One who can.
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