H,
There is a certain fear to
being helpless. It is akin to the idea of being paralysed but that is not
really fair because to be paralysed is not to be helpless. There are limits to
what you can do when you have a certain paralysis but there is still room for
you to be yourself in some way. Helplessness in God leaves you no room for
yourself in the traditional sense in which we understand the term. There is a
marked difference between who you think you are and who eternity wants to make
you into. We had that old tale told to us in our younger years with this
epigram: “the person you should never meet is the man you should have been.” The
life in God goes even further. It removes the past tense. There is not a missed
opportunity that is still relevant. All there ever is and all there ever will
be is the person you can be now. The past is a door that is closed and the
future is a door that is open.
There is no time for regret.
You are helpless to change the things you have done. The choice is ever before
you. The strength comes from knowing you can give up trying to fix yourself. Now,
this cannot mean to give in to anything other than God. A person who is looking
to find life eternal is not interested in continuing in sin. This does not mean
that he or she will not commit sin. It means that they want something other than
sin. They know that train is going nowhere and most of the time they are
helpless to get off the route to nowhere.
Recently I had to talk to
the cat about some decisions she had made. For the first time in all my
counselling and offering faulty advice I knew she would not listen. I knew she
would go back in time to the thing that had upset her and live there a little
while longer. In the old days, this would have upset me but it did not now. I told
her she simply was not ready to give it up and when she was ready she would
know. I told her the door of grace was open at every moment of surrender. I told
her not to ever feel trapped or out of options. I was finally in line with the
truth about what a helpless person I was in terms of influencing another will. I
could talk and give the best advice I had but I could not push that person to
believe it or do it even if it was the best thing for them. This is the power
and surrender of love. It is one of the greatest ideas in the universe. It is
the way God feels toward us until we make the decision to give it all up to
Him. His love is proved in our disobedience.
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