Is Your World Spinning Out of Control?

When I was a girl, playgrounds consisted of at least one slide, a set of swings and a merry-go-round. Not a carousel with circled horses. A round piece of metal with bars for gripping with whitened knuckles as you hung on for dear life.

A piece of playground equipment that the older boys - including my brother - would push the younger riders around and around, faster and faster until the entire world was spinning. The passing landscape became a swirl of colors, with no destinctive shapes.

The fun usually ended when somebody threw up.

It was great.

As I got older my fun became more sophisticated and I tried to avoid the nausea and upset stomach of a spinning world. I preferred to have my feet firmly planted on the ground.

Feet on the ground.

No merry-go-rounds.

A controlled world.

Or so I thought.

Recently I got an email from a friend,

Please pray for me. The cancer is back. It's so scary.

My world tilted.

Illness has a way of doing that. Or job termination. Or relationship struggles.  Or death.

Suddenly I find myself face to face with the reminder that I am not in charge of the universe. All it takes is one phone call, one diagnosis, one email, for my world to spin out of control.

Mark Batterson, in the book Wild Goose Chase, writes comforting words about God being in control, even when we forget that he is. "Before the day is done," he writes, "you will have traveled 1.3 million miles in your annual trek around the sun....When was the last time you thanked God for keeping us in orbit?"

I'm guessing if you are like me, you don't even think about it.

Batterson continues, "If God can keep the planets in orbit, don't you think He can reorder your life when you feel like it's spinning out of control?"

Colossians 1:16-17 is another good reminder, "Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can't....He was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together."

Planets. Galaxies. Sun, moon and stars. My life. Your life.

He holds everything together.

Maybe I'll climb back on the merry-go-round and take another spin.