What He asks us to accept

On the most basic level, for Christians in a self-improvement culture, for whom God's power always seems to be manifest when He does what we want or what our parents hope for, it's necessary to learn that God's power is often manifest in what He asks us to accept.  He is greater than our desires - greater than what we desire, and not constrained by our wants or our cultural values.  He has for us something better than what we could design for ourselves.

    - Eve Tushnet

There is an illusion that most of us hold - that we cling to even in the face of solid evidence to the contrary.  We tend to think we are in control over all aspects of our lives.  That with enough attention to the details of today and enough planning for what will come tomorrow, we can live up to our own expectations and be whatever we want to be.  Our culture holds as one of its highest values autonomy - the ability to govern the self completely independent of any outside control.

 The Church, in its wisdom, provides us with the season of Lent as counterbalance to this world view.  I truly believe that one of the benefits of the Lenten fast fitting to the current times is that we eventually fail in keeping whatever promises we made when it began.  Maybe you are one of the few who do not fail, and there are specific lessons in the fast for you not covered here - but for the rest of us who do fail, it should be quite obvious that if we cannot even control our desires over a small and inconsequential thing then it is highly likely we do not have the power to control  the much larger aspects of our lives. 

 There is a word that sums up the lack of control we exhibit when we are aiming for something and we miss the mark - sin. 

 And that's where the quote given above ties into this Lenten reflection.  God's power is often manifest in what He asks us to accept.  God's power comes to life when we admit we are not in control - that we have and will miss the mark - that we are sinners. 

 The author of that quote, Eve Tushnet, is a Catholic living with her same-sex attraction in a way contrary to the world view of most today.  She writes that her same-sex attraction was the first place she truly confronted a lack of control in her life.  It was the first place where she needed to trust a God who is bigger than her expectations. 

 This begs the question - are there aspects of my life that I do not have control over which God is asking me to accept?

Do I drink too much?

Am I addicted to pornography?

Is my job more important than my family?

Am I reliving my life through my children?

Am I abusive to others I love either physically or with my language?

 Accepting lack of control in these things is no doubt scary - but as Eve writes, I have no doubt that "He has for us something better than what we could design for ourselves."

So what does 'accepting' look like?  Well, a good confession would be a great place to start.  What comes next will probably look different for each of us.  Humbly seek help and do it in the knowledge that you are manifesting God, who will be with you on the journey.