Self Control
Self Control
We all want to be in charge of ourselves, of our lives, but are we?
I do things even though I know - while I'm doing them - that I shouldn't be doing them, and I don't do things that I know I should do.
I can come up with impressive rationalizations, and even believe them myself, when I wouldn't believe them for a minute if I heard them from someone else.
We are not in control of our lives - of ourselves - as much as we think we are. None of us is.
We eat too much, drink too much, have affairs, smoke cigarettes, spend more than we have, procrastinate, tell lies, watch junk on TV or the web, etc., etc., etc., even though we don't think any of them is a good thing to do.
We can have all of the best intentions in the world, and still find ourselves having attitudes that we criticize others for, saying things that we really wouldn't want to have played back to us, and doing things that we know are bad for us.
We are not in control of ourselves because we are fractured internally. We fight against ourselves.
It's not a problem that people talk about in public. Mostly, we present to the world an image of being in control of our lives.
You may even believe that most people are "together" and that you're the exception. You're not.
Something is missing in each one of us. I believe that what's missing is an active relationship with God. It is he who can put us back together, who can bring harmony and unity to our interior selves.
God meets with us deep within ourselves. As we yield ourselves to his love and goodness, the divisions within us heal. Our desires come into agreement with one another, as they come into agreement with God.
We become more ourselves and less conflicted. We become more free.
There is a God to be found; a God who restores the wholeness to our souls. To find God, we must sincerely and humbly seek Him. And the place to seek him, logically enough, is where others have found him.
It's our pride that makes us want to find God all on our own.
We are afraid that we will lose some of our individuality and uniqueness if we join a group of people of faith. Quite the opposite is true.
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