The year that I was in eighth grade, the high school of our school district was shut down for an extended period of time for asbestos removal.

For most of the year, the only thing that was possible to continue education was to have the middle school and high school students share the middle school building with each going to school for half of the day.

I distinctly remember one morning sitting at home eating cereal as I waited to go to school that afternoon. My father, grandfather, and great-grandparents gathered around me as we watched the events of 9/11 unfold before our eyes.

I remember going to school and sitting in class that afternoon and the surreal feeling of continuing on with normal activities inside while the world out there seemed to be falling apart. Never have I again felt such a disconnect between my world and the outside world.

This past week brought that feeling back again as I stood in front of the TV watching the events unfold at our nation’s capital while needing to lead our three children through the work they needed to do for their virtual schooling.

Sometimes that disconnect, that surrealness, jars us and shakes us. We feel so little and out of the control of the world around us. Anxiety can spin us out of control and send us down paths we never meant to explore. How are we to respond in these situations?

One of the first things that we need to realize is that we were never in control to begin with. We tend to like to think we control nearly aspect of our lives but even our best laid plans always lie tentative to God’s will. God is the one who is control. He always has been and always will be and not a single moment of time has passed by and not a single event has happened in which it slipped past him unnoticed.

There is something incredibly freeing and peaceful in coming to understand this. Have you ever swum until your arms and legs were exhausted and then climbed on top of a pool raft to lie and relax? Isn’t it so nice to simply relax and enjoy that moment? When we think we are in control we exhaust ourselves trying to stay afloat. When we realize that the One who loves us more than we can ever imagine and who is all-powerful is control, we can find rest knowing He is really the one keeping us afloat. We experience an amazing calmness and peace resting in Him.

It is out of this sense of peace, calmness, and joy that we are called to serve God. For even though we are not in control, God has called us to play a role in the unfolding of the history of God’s interaction with His people. There is much to do as servants of the Most High in this sinful and fallen world but we need not exhaust ourselves through panic and worry.

This week, remind yourself to take breaks to sit with God and enjoy His presence. Pause to talk to Him about how you are feeling and what concerns keep invading your mind. Lay it all down at the feet of the God who is bigger than any situation or circumstance and holds the whole world in His hands.

For the LORD is a great God

And a great King above all gods,

In whose hand are the depths of the earth,

The peaks of the mountains are also His.

The sea is His, for it was He who made it,

And His hands formed the dry land.

Psalm 95:3-5 NASB

People’s EC Church is located at 216 Wagner St., Lehighton.