Are you trying to run the parade?

The Message has a way of putting things that always makes me pay close attention.  In Roman’s 3 it says:

What we’ve learned is this: God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does. We’ve finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

I have spent my entire life going back and forth between letting God set the pace and feeling that peace and joy that comes with that kind of living and the opposite:   Proudly and sometimes anxiously trying to run the parade.  That never goes well.

My mom is going to be 89 this year and her favorite word is “relinquish.”  For literally decades I have heard her talk about giving control to God in regards to one challenge or another.   When she was younger it was things like my brothers’ rebelliousness or financial matters.   This past week the people at her assisted living facility did her laundry and didn’t get it back to her apartment.   She told me on the phone, “I was all upset for a while, But then relinquished that to the Lord, made a couple phone calls, and just waited for them to return the laundry.  And sure enough, they did.”  

What is it that you are trying so hard to control?  What kind of parade are you trying to run?    Maybe it’s time to get it step with God and everyone else respond to what He does and letting him set the pace!