When You're Not in Control

By Mike Glenn

Did you know that there is a sequel to the classic novel Mutiny on the Bounty?  It's called Men Against the Sea. The second novel tells the story of Captain Bly and the sailors loyal to him being set adrift in uncharted seas trying to make their way to safety. With Captain Bly at the helm, with few rations and no reliable charts, they sailed 3,600 miles to the Dutch East Indies.  To this day, Captain Bly’s seamanship remains one of the greatest feats of courage and endurance in maritime history. Too big of an ocean, too small of a boat, and no reliable maps. Feel familiar?

Every day, I feel like I’m living in the sequel to the sequel. My book would be called Pastors Against the Sea. The wind never lets up, the waves are higher today than they were yesterday, and the current seems to change directions moment by moment. Welcome to my life as a pastor of a local church.

I pray. I study. Our church plans. We pray. Every moment we are confronted with this very hard truth — we aren’t in control. We aren’t in control of any aspect of our lives. We’re all along for the ride. The faster we understand this, the better off we’ll be. Most of us know some story that reads like a Greek tragedy. A person decides they will command their own fate, does battle with the gods, and is brought low by the schemes and power of residents of Mount Olympus.

This is an awful moment of reality for all of us - the moment we realize that we aren't in control. My little life is battered by decisions other people make. I'm forced to change plans because of the weather. Somebody gets sick and a meeting is canceled. I don't have all the money in the world, so every day, I'm forced to make decisions about what I can spend and when I can spend it. Yes, most of us would just call this life, but think about it. Every day we are forced to react to decisions other people make. Some decisions, honestly, we don't know who makes them. We don't know who makes the decisions about heart attacks, cancer, and diabetes -- but we have to live with them.

We've created things in our world that give us the illusion of control. We have thermostats that maintain the temperatures in our homes. We have planning systems to organize our time and monitor our projects. Yet underneath our captain-of-our-soul veneer is the haunting reality that we're not in control of our lives, much less our world.

Now, this is okay. It's a fact of life. The faster we learn this the better and richer our lives will be. We just have to be comfortable knowing there are some decisions we won't ever make and we'll live with the consequences for the rest of our lives.

How do you do that?

First, understand that the size of your boat doesn't matter. If it floats, it's fine. Yes, it's nice when you can sail across the ocean in the Queen Elizabeth, but others have rowed much smaller boats across the ocean. Have you ever seen mock-ups of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria? The ships that brought Columbus to North America? They are very small ships, but they got Columbus here and back just fine.

Second, understand the currents. There are streams in our lives, just like the currents in the ocean, that move throughout our days. There is truth, there is love and yes, there is grace. If we align our little boats to these currents, we can find a smoother sail. No, it won't be perfect, but it will be a little smoother. Finding the wind accomplishes the same thing. The winds have certain predictable patterns. We may not understand it all, but we can set our sails to capture this power.

Most importantly, we have to be very careful and intentional in choosing our captain. Here's the hard truth. Somebody will be the captain. It doesn't matter how big or little our boat is, it doesn't matter how many people are in the crew. If there are more than two, someone will be the captain and everyone else will be the crew. This is the one choice we get to make and it's the one choice that determines all of the other choices.

Throughout Scripture, the sea is used as a mythical symbol of chaos. Jonah was thrown into the sea. The Red Sea blocked the Israelites from the Promised Land. The storm threatened to drown the disciples as they tried to get across to the other side. Each time -- every time -- the raging sea submitted to the sound of the Voice that called it into being.

That's our Captain. He knows the sea. He created the winds. He's been this way before and He's the only one who knows the way home.

We can't make a lot of decisions. We aren't in control of much, but we are in control of this. We can choose our Captain. Choose well. As the sailors under Captain Bly remind us, the only thing that matters is who our Captain is.