Letting Go.

I’m a big Star Trek fan.

I was watching Captain Kirk when black-and-white TV was the norm. Later, I thrilled to the adventures of Captain Picard, Commander Sisko, Captain Janeway, and most recently, Captain Pike.

The episodes I really like are the space battles. Especially where the tactical situation is grim.

That’s how our lives are. We’re in the middle of a battle. Enemies are firing on all sides. The shields are failing, power getting low from the fight. In moments like that, we might rush to the bridge and implore the captain to save us.

But you get up there and Kirk, Picard, Sisko, or Janeway, or Pike aren’t in the center seat.

Daffy Duck is.

This is the part where you kiss yourself goodbye.

 And that’s how it is when we put ourselves in the seat. We try to stay in charge when obviously we’re the last person to be sitting there.

So, let’s go back to the beginning of Psalm 23.

God, my shepherd!
    I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
    you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
    You let me catch my breath
    and send me in the right direction.

Okay, we agree. We need someone to guide things. We need a captain or a shepherd.

So, let’s take a further look at what Psalm 23 says.

I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
    you find me quiet pools to drink from.

Now what catches my attention is the next line that says, ” You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from.”

Have you caught how it’s written. It’s past tense. From David’s perspective, it’s already happened. And he’s also looking back to acknowledge it’s happened before.

But this tells me something about the nature of God.

Every sheepherder I’ve ever known already knows where the grass and water are. They don’t have to look at a map or Google it and check five-star reviews or launch a drone to find it.

They already know.

How?

They’ve been there. They know the way. And if God has been there already it tells me He’s not confined by time. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow have already happened, are happening, and will happen all at the same instant for him. He knows when your desert trek is going to end. He knows what’s going to happen yet.

So, why don’t we?

I asked a friend one time (he was a physics major, and I thought smarter than me) about the universe. He explained it this way. “We’re three dimensionally creatures rotated into the fourth dimension, which is time.”

That’s a fancy way of saying “yesterday’s gone and tomorrow is out of sight.” I think Kris Kristofferson explained it better that my friend did.

Would it help if we knew?

and if we did, would we build something up in our minds that reality wouldn’t match? And instead of being grateful, would we curse the Shepherd and want more and stop following him because our reality didn’t match what was provided?

God never once promised me I’d be rich. He never promised me an easy life.

He did promise to look after me.

But to get to the promise of tomorrow, we have to take a detour through hell.

And that leads me to the last two lines.

You let me catch my breath
    and send me in the right direction.

There can only be one captain of a ship, and God knows this. If I insist on sitting down in the center seat and calling the shots, he’ll let me. And it’s a sure bet I don’t know the way. I’ll make a wreck of things, and if by some chance I manage my way through it, it won’t be the destination I wanted.

But if I let him command it, it takes the burden and stress off me. I still have my part to do, and that’s to keep looking and following but the worry is taken off me.

It’s up to him to navigate the wasteland to where I need to be.

It’s my job to shut up and keep moving.