One particular morning, I mumbled those same prayer lines- “Jesus, take the wheel”, and drove off. In the middle of the highway I heard my thoughts loud and clear, a silent but firm whisper oozing out from my subconscious with the intensity of water finding its way out of a busted pipeline: can you hand the wheel over to God right now and right here? As if seeking an answer, I looked around me, I was positioned right in the middle lane of a 5 lane highway with the speed limit at 120km/hr, cars switching lane left and right in all directions! Rather than answer the question, series of questions began flooding my mind as if to answer one question with so many others: first how do I make this transfer, how do I switch seats with God, how do I move from the driver’s seat and allow God take charge, how I do sit back and watch things go out of my control even for a split second while God gets ready to takes charge, can I trust Him to take control of my vehicle on this busy highway while I watch? Let me save you the details friends, the whole point is how do I allow God take ABSOLUTE control of my car wheel when I have the wheel where I want it?
It’s so easy to give God outright control of what we deem as ours when all is out of our control. Very easy to yell His name and scream at Him to take the wheel in the middle of the highway when the car is spinning three hundred and sixty degrees! Oh, countless times we have thrown up our hands in the air in total surrender to God when things are out of our control and far outside our sphere of influence. But God wants the control when you have it and when you don’t, He wants the show when you run it and when you don’t, He wants to be the star on the centre stage either the spotlight is on you or not! To give Him the control only when we don’t have it is to picture the controller of the universe as a puppet in the hands of mere mortals; a God whose lot is to come dancing to our utmost bidding like a puppet will before its master’s strings, and to see God as another of life’s resources that we can grab to gratify our stringiest desires, rather than the very owner of life itself, the creator of the universe who is beyond our grasp.
Far from me that the King of Kings be the Pinocchio while I be the Geppetto of my own life!
When God is the centre of your life you won’t need a divine intervention every now and then, there will be no need for heaven’s map to cross earth’s path because the truth is that your path lies in His map and He is there at every junction, every fork, every exit, every corner, every right and left turn in the road with you- it is His road map!
Paul’s phrase from Gal 2 vs 20 – …”it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”… tells the story of a life that has absolutely no control whatsoever over the life he lives- for the life he lives is another’s!
It’s got to be an absolute surrender or none at all; the life I live is God’s so why should I hold back any part of that life away from Him! All of my life including my writing, my kids, my career, my church, my money, my dreams and all of mine are His! He is the source of all life, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and he is not served by human hands, rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else! (Psalm 50:10 & Acts 17:25)
God desires the ‘all access key’, we tell the story of the man who opened up a single room in his house to the Lord, when robbers came they robbed the whole house except that which has been given to the Lord! Surprised, the man of the house confronted the Lord saying: “I gave you a room in my house why didn’t you protect me when the robbers came?” The lord responded, “I only protect what has been given to me!” It is a fact that God doesn’t take what you haven’t surrendered to Him. He said commit your ways and even your thoughts to me and they shall be established! He wants your life, He wants your plans, He wants your dreams, He wants the church or that ministry you call yours, He wants it all centred on Him for it was never about you in the first place, no not an iota about you!
God is that Landlord who will never come into His own estate without the invitation of that steward He Himself has entrusted His estate. But when He gets the invite, He will not take the back stage for He is the true man of the house. So the choice is yours as God’s stewards and caretaker of all that you call yours: would you rather grant the ‘all access key’ to the true man of the house and take the back stage or would you hold on to the controls and continue to sham the ownership of all that has been given you to manage? I know we all love some degree of control, but that’s when God backs out! When you are in control of your life God is out of control, when you rewrite your own version of the story of your life, God is never in it, when you have the centre stage, He is off the stage – He doesn’t take the back stage! With God on the scene there are no two stars, the spot light is either on Him or God is not on the stage at all!
That is why Paul said …”God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord”…
If you surrender the centre stage of your life to God, your show will never go out of control even when things go awry you can trust the divine orchestra to steal your show, put up a few notes in place, tune up the rhythms here and there, till the balance is right, and your song – He will finish to your amazement!
This new year, hold nothing back from Him. Give Him the wheel of your car, the cockpit of your air plane, and the absolute leadership of your year and God will always be there: at centre of it all.
