Control

I think I may have mentioned this before, but nothing stresses me out more than school. I’ve been trying to figure out why this is, since logically I know it’s a social construction that I choose to partake in. School stresses me out more than wandering around a city I’ve never been to before where I don’t speak the language while trying to find a place to stay the night. Because of this stress, I’m a pretty boring person during the school year. My life involves going to classes, work, and doing homework. The adventures are few and far between but my soul is always dreaming of places to go and things to do, especially hiking and backpacking.

One of the things I love the most about what I’ve learned from my adventures is the humility nature impresses upon you. It’s blatant honesty which affirms “you are not the center of the universe” is jolting and relieving at the same time. With so many things seemingly under our control, I think it’s often easy to forget that existence does not rest on your shoulders, it will go on if you loosen your uncompromising grip. This doesn’t mean you’re not valuable or needed. In fact, your very existence automatically yields influence. It’s a beautiful things that your life can only add to this world, and you have the choice to make it a positive or negative contribution. While problems are real and have weight, they are also temporary. There is freedom in letting go of what you can’t control.

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is where God illustrates this very message of who is in control:

Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
And caused the dawn to know its place…
Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water,
Or a path for the thunderbolt,
To cause it to rain on a land where there is no one,
A wilderness in which there is no man;
To satisfy the desolate waste,
And cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass?
Has the rain a father? …
Does the hawk fly by your wisdom,
And spread its wings toward the south?
Does the eagle mount up at your command,
And make its nest on high?
On the rock it dwells and resides,
On the crag of the rock and the stronghold.

Job 38: 12, 25-28; 39:26-28

The universe is in the hands of its Creator, and when we start to unclench our hands, we can receive some of its wonders.