Mark 13:11
But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry in advance about what to say. Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Once in a while, I think of my friend Theresa… the librarian at the elementary school where I taught. Theresa married a man named Tom, and to hear her tell it… he was perfect. He was a city cop who did everything well… treated her like a queen… loved their daughter and his children from a previous marriage like the best daddy in the world. No other man measured up to Tom, and Theresa made sure we knew it! Now I look back and see that Theresa must have spent hours/days/weeks preparing her spiels for us. She must have thought long and hard about how to spin the story of her marriage to Tom.
All of the glowing accolades Theresa heaped upon this man could not change the fact that he was an abusive husband. I can still see the bruise marks on her neck where Tom strangled her… the mottled purple and yellow areas that no amount of mortician’s makeup could hide. I don’t know how much of the marriage that Theresa was trapped in an abusive situation. When she managed to escape, Tom harassed her… and then he pleaded with her to come back to him. I’m sure he had his own rehearsed spiel… how things would be different this time… how he would never hurt her again. But his lies were lethal. In the end, he could not control himself…and it cost my friend her life.
A lot of us are caught in a trap of spending countless hours figuring out what to say… how to act… what image to project to others – and this is physically, mentally and spiritually exhausting, if not deadly! All we really need to do is “let go and let GOD”… to “move over and let Him drive the car!” We are not literally “on trial” for anything, as this scripture references… but we have placed ourselves in judgment by others – both real and imagined. We worry about whether we are smart enough, good looking, rich enough, wear the right clothes and drive the right car. We wonder if others think our home is nice enough… and whether we are sufficiently “spiritual”. We work ourselves into a tizzy trying to create the best image… to cover up our sins and shortcomings… to compensate for our perceived lack of whatever it is we think we need… and we make ourselves miserable in the process.
Life would be so much simpler if we would just let God have control. If we would shift our focus from making excuses to making time for God to work in and through us, we would never have to worry about most everything that concerns us. And if you think this is easy for me, you are sadly mistaken. This is a tough one for ALL of us… and I am including myself!
Today needs to be the day we stop the madness! This needs to be a day of change and reconciliation… a day when we say, “That’s it! I’m done letting the devil drive me crazy!” (Because we all know this is the devil’s doing… right?!) This should be the day that we stop and say, “LORD, I’m sorry I have shut you out… I’m ready to let your Holy Spirit have complete charge of my life. From now on, I will trust YOU to give me the words and actions that I need… and to handle the outcomes.”
Today can be the day we experience a transformation from someone who is frantically trying to be someone and something we are not… to the peace-filled person God has created us to be. Are you ready to make the switch? Won’t you hand over the keys to God and let Him “drive”?
©2013 Debbie Robus
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