Control Trap

“Resist not evil…” is part of the tac­tics for sur­vival that Jesus taught. By “turn­ing the other cheek” you stay in con­trol — even when it appears that you are out of con­trol. Being in con­trol of the sit­u­a­tion does not mean that things are going your way (the great illu­sion of our times), but that you are spir­i­tu­ally supe­rior to any­thing that might hap­pen — even your own death. In short, things do not have to go your way for you to “win” in life. In fact, the trap to avoid is cre­at­ing your life like YOU want it to be.

“Con­trol” itself is quite an illu­sion — which is why Jesus spoke of “sow­ing seeds” and liv­ing by “faith.” The way real­ity works is not by direct force but by influ­ence. Influ­ence is not manip­u­la­tion. It is the will­ing­ness to let God work through you for the sake of Deity in the ser­vice of human­ity. Faith is liv­ing in the ten­sion between the seed that is sown (your actions) and the changes that fol­low (that may take decades).

Pilate was in con­trol. Herod was in con­trol. NOT! They only had the illu­sion of a power posi­tion given to them by the ONE that is behind all of life’s scenes. The way to be in con­trol is by not being con­trol­ling. Non-resistance is far more pow­er­ful than nuclear weapons. It allows the all-powerful soul to come through the veneer of ego con­trol madness.

What hap­pens to you today really does not mat­ter, but it does mat­ter how you see what hap­pens. You can­not con­trol oth­ers. You can be there for them. You can ful­fill your God-given roles in life with grace and for­give­ness, but you are not at the helm of anything…God is.

Ter­ror­ism is very effec­tive on high cul­tures. It threat­ens their illu­sions of con­trol. Con­se­quently, they become more con­trol­ling and man­age to self-destruct (ter­ror­ism goes back thou­sands of years and has allowed the few to con­trol the many). Spir­i­tu­al­ity is aware of this. Matu­rity steps aside while com­pet­ing con­trol freaks (indi­vid­u­als and polit­i­cal par­ties) go at each other — ulti­mately los­ing con­trol of everything.

My sur­vival does not depend on how things go and has noth­ing to do with my pref­er­ences. All things pass. Stay­ing out of the con­trol traps along the way is paramount.

Stay calm.