A New Devotion - The Downside of Control

 Here's a new devotion that I wrote. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Mark 10:17-27

As [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

The Downside of Control

Historically, I think Americans have had a lot of control over their lives. Of course, I recognize that certainly wasn’t the case for African-Americans and Native Americans. Still, a lot of us had the freedom to decide for ourselves the kind of lives we want to live. And I think most folks think that’s a good thing. Of course, this is probably the result of living in the United States, a country that’s had a tradition of political and economic freedom. It also hasn’t hurt that our standard of living has been fairly high; therefore, where folks in other societies struggled to live from day to day, most of us have had enough for today and tomorrow. And because of that, we’ve able to rely on ourselves and on our ability to take care of our needs. In fact, for many, their whole value and faith systems have focused on what they consider roughed individualism and self-reliance.

And even though this isn’t bad in and of itself, I think it can lead to the attitude shown by the rich man in the passage I just read, a person that the Evangelist Mark wrote that Jesus loved. You see, I think the control that his wealth offered led him to believe that he was in control of himself and his future, not unlike another man who assumed he could secure his future by building bigger barns. And because of that, this rich man was crushed when he heard that the only way to inherit eternal life and to experience salvation was to get rid of all the stuff that made him feel secure. Of course, that makes sense. I mean, because he was unwilling to do this, he’d never be able to trust God completely. You see, so long as his faith was grounded in something other than God, he couldn’t know the peace and freedom of life in the kingdom. And I think I’m safe in saying that really is the downside of control.