When Life Spins Out of Control

 

(Unsplash: Chuttersnap)

I couldn’t see what happened except in my mind. My kids and I were seated at a restaurant, chatting… when suddenly there was a loud crash followed by the sound of breaking glass. A large pole I was sitting next to blocked my view, but I knew that a restaurant worker had been carrying a huge tray of clean glasses to the nearby bar when something happened and he dropped his load. The sound shattered the dinnertime ambience as well as his payload, and all attention was turned to the unfortunate employee. I am glad I couldn’t see the embarrassment and discomfiture that must’ve enveloped him or her. It's one thing to drop dinnerware in the kitchen where nobody can see… another thing entirely to do so in full view of everybody (but me!) in the restaurant. My heart went out to the unfortunate soul.

Maybe the fact that I couldn’t see his face was the point – that such disasters can happen to any one of us who carries a large load of responsibility and suddenly loses his grip. It’s a grace when the inevitable fall doesn’t happen in a public place.

My devotional reading this morning (a guest post by Becky Thompson on Ann Voskamp’s blog) was about balancing all the spinning plates of responsibility in our lives and carried the reminder to listen to God say, “I keep the world spinning, and I hold everything in My hands… remember that you’re not God… I am. So ask me for help because I’ll give it. Ask Me to intervene because I will. Allow My strength to move through you. That’s the only way spinning plates don’t fall.”

“He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.” 

(Psalm 95:4-5 NLT)