Don't we like certainty!

A long time ago a friend slid off the road into a ditch in the snow.  Afterwards he said

"I was in perfect control of the car as it went into the ditch"

He was prepared to wreck his car, but not his self image of being in control.

We do like our certainty don't we!  A number of different things have all reminded me of this recently, there was the article about Charlotte Raven diagnosed with Huntingdon's Chorea, who considered suicide because of the loss of control implied; there was the "barmy vicar" story about advising the hard up to shop lift, which for me became a story because people wanted a rule, not to look at a situation; and a friend blogged on the desire for certainty and control being behind the concerns about the Haiti earthquake.

In the west we have reached a situation when the illusion of being in control is sustainable.  We are no more in control than we ever were, but we think that we are.  And yet faith tells us that we are not - there is nothing that I can do to earn God's love, but it is there waiting to be enjoyed.  We are not very good at enjoying either, being too busy "controlling" things to have time to enjoy them.

And yet I know that when I can let go (interesting choice of phrase) I am freer.

(I don't claim to be any better than anyone else, as readers of other posts in this blog will know!).