All I needed to do was deliver the pre-labeled box to a UPS driver or a drop-off location. The problem was that I was in a hurry and in an unfamiliar location (a hotel in northern Indiana). Then suddenly while walking outside the hotel, I was looking at my phone to find a UPS drop off point, and in that very moment a UPS driver pulled into the hotel parking lot directly in front of me, and kindly took the box. I had to laugh out loud (and am laughing as I type). The driver probably thought I was crazy, especially as I said to him, “you are a gift from God”.
While it would be cool to have some super-power to “will” things to happen in my favor (and for a brief moment I fantasized that I somehow had a part in the driver’s location), I am realizing more every day that I really have power over nothing apart from my own attitude. No power over illness, family, relationships, the weather or my future. Sure, we can make great choices to position ourselves but there are endless variables that we have absolutely no control over.
In today’s reading (Luke 8), what stood out was the stark contrast to our power as opposed to the unlimited, supernatural power of Jesus. Listed below are some of the examples and their corresponding verses. He has all authority and power over:
- evil spirits (2, 29, 32-33, 35)
- disease (2, 44)
- knowledge/wisdom; speaking on behalf of God (10, 18)
- nature (wind and the waves); (24)
- demons (as they acknowledged him as the Son of the Most High God) (28)
- death (53-55)
Jesus himself acknowledged his own power leaving him to help someone!
But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” (Luke 8:46)
Today may we let go and give everything over to the one who holds our past, present, and future in his precious and most powerful hands!