I love playing games on our Wii system with my six year old daughter. We have one conflict. Both of us want to be “Player One”. We race to activate our controllers first, so that we can chose the games, click through the options, and “be in control”.
My daughter loves to be “player one”…wants to be in control…even though she’s a first grader and can’t read or comprehend all of the directions and options. She wants to be “in charge” even on new games that she has NO IDEA how to play. My daughter is so much like me…
When people say that God wants to “be in control of our lives”, I think they miss the point. I don’t think God wants to “grab the controller out of our hands”. I don’t think God ever intended to play this game of life alone…without us. In fact, I’m pretty sure scripture shows us that God’s reason for creating mankind was so that he could spend time with us…enjoy our company…be our loving father. God DOES WANT to be “Player One”. For our own good he wants to direct our “options”. For our own benefit he wants to guide us through the difficult games that we don’t fully understand. Because he loves us he wants us to direct us as we “play” together.
I have experienced how much better life can be when my Father is “Player One”. I fully admit that when he is in control the “game” of life is so much more fulfilling. …but sometimes I’m still a six year old fighting for the controller number one.
How about you?
And the great thing about it is that if you do manage to become player one and destroy all of your “Marios” its never game over with God. He is still willing to play the “game”. We just have to get used to God being player one.