Thy Will Be Done

Thy Will Be Done

By April McQueen

I like to think that I can control my time and pretty much everything else by making endless and impossible to do lists, schedules, and a full day planner with goals that I will not succeed in accomplishing for an hour, a day, a week, a month, or a year.  These artificial time controls do not bring me peace.   I realize that I am destined to fail if I continue to seek to seize power over my life, no matter how good my way looks on paper. 

There is no total control.  However, there is love, struggle, loss, and liberty and as human constructs, the presence of control dwells in them.  The most one can hope for is learning what self-control is needed in a given situation.  Applying and releasing one’s desired outcome is the next crucial step.  Anything other than God’s will be done is not better, but a dangerous illusion.  If this is an illusion, what good, then, of submitting and surrendering one’s personal will to His?  Is a moment by moment commitment to decide to obey God, follow Christ, and listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit a better plan?  Lastly, we must consider what is the most effective way to attend to our needs and balance our long list of never-ending wants if we are to adopt a faith-based approach and abandon the do-it-yourself method.

At the heart of any close relationship are communication and trust, not control of what we recognize and label as “the other”.  Do you have a foundation of trust in God at the center of your relationship?  Ask yourself, are you in ongoing communication with Our Lord?  Do you let Him have control of your concerns and decisions great and small, or are you trying to be God and be in control of everything? 

This is not easy.  With practice founded in faith, trust becomes the better choice.  Circumstances are impossible for us to control.  Our will achieved by our own efforts to control everything in our small world is a failing attempt from the beginning to the end.   Forcing what we want and when and how we want it will always fall short.

The struggle continues despite a simpler way.  We don’t need to craft “perfect” prayers when we already have one.  The “Our Father” is a good model.  It leads us through this challenge.  It addresses the battle of wills and wants.  “Thy will be done.”  Because at the beginning, center, and end, He is the Lord of our life, and, thank God that we are not.