God is in ______

There’s a popular saying among Christians that “God is in control.”  If “God is in control,” then why do you and I still sin?  Why do we see so many Christians in conflict with each other?

Because we still have free will and he’s chosen not to be in that kind of control.  He’s in the kind of “control” where He can and does routinely involve himself with us, just like other people do:  conversation, persuasion, confrontation, intervention, giving life, ending life, comfort, and so forth.  No one would say that the guy ballroom dancing was “controlling” his partner. Leading, yes.  Partner following (we hope!), yes.  It’s a relationship, not a control/submit struggle.

Please notice that nothing I just said denies his power, authority, sovereignty, justice, holiness, miracles, other activity in this present day, or any of those other things Christians talk about.  Can he unilaterally cause events without any human participation as such?  Sure.  Does he?  Sure.  Sometimes he “sets up kings and deposes them.”  Not always.  People do quite a bit of that themselves, frequently badly.

Can I recognize the line between God’s active interventions and man’s?  Heck no, and I doubt anyone else can either.  (But I see a lot of people out there who think they can.)

“Power” and “control” aren’t the same thing at all.  Control is the use of power to achieve some end.  To “have” the power to do anything, anywhere, anytime is not the same as to apply that power unilaterally.

God is in power.  Thank God we’re not.  And thank God we’re not in control, either.