When "Control" Gives Way to Chaos
Acts 27:13-15, 20, ESV
Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land. And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along…When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
This is just a few verses within the passage of Scripture about Paul’s shipwreck (where we’ll be for the next few weeks), but I want to point out the progression which takes place between verse 13 and verse 20:
They started out hopeful because their circumstances looked good and they felt like they were in control.
Their circumstances went crazy.
They realized they had no control.
They gave up all hope.
And that’s when God revealed Himself:
Acts 27:22-23, ESV [Paul speaking]
“Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship,”
When our “control” gives way to chaos, God is there. He stands before us to give us hope—a hope in his control, not our own.
We hate feeling like we don’t have control, which is ironic because we don’t have much. When things are “smooth-sailing”;), we often think we’re in control because our circumstances are lining up with our intentions.
But we’re not.
We’re not in control of our circumstances any more when they are smooth-sailing than when they are chaotic.
But God is.
When we learn to embrace this truth, it changes our lives because it gives us true hope and true freedom. True hope is found in the realization that we may not have control of our circumstances, but we know the One who does. When we realize we have no control—but we learn to have peace in the fact that we know the One who does—then we walk in a hope which has no contingencies. And this kind of hope sets us free. We become free from the need for control because we realize that to trust in God’s is so much better.
Oh Lord, thank you that we can always find peace, hope, and freedom in knowing you are in control. Please help us to learn to walk in that understanding through every circumstance. Amen.
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