Life is fair. Really it is. It has difficult moments – times of battle, times of struggle, moments of strife. But then, we must admit, God in Heaven is a great Scriptwriter. He does give us amazing ‘commercial breaks’. Moments of triumph that give us hope; moments of joy and celebration; moments when we see His glorious Hand at work.

In Exodus 12:35-36, the children of Israel, after 430 years of slavery and several failed attempts to leave Egypt, were finally granted their request – not only to leave but also to leave with articles of silver and gold and clothing. They were no longer slaves with no earthly belongings. Their story had changed.

And so, they left Egypt, fully-laden – with great hopes and dreams, ready to face the future; Raring to step into their Promised Land. They must have already had an imagination of what their future would look like – And how the dance and song would go on forever. They had finally stepped into the realm of the reality of His promises.

In many ways, it feels like that for us – when we excel in our exams, when we land a new job, when we finally start that business, when we have a great wedding – We are raring to step into the next phase of our lives; full of hopes and dreams. We have it all figured out.

We step into our new position. And then we become disillusioned. Nothing prepared us for the challenges of life in college; nothing prepared us for the office politics in the new job; nothing prepared us for the hustle of owning our own business; nothing prepared us for heart-break in our search for love; nothing prepared us for the adjustment of a new family. It seems like everything stopped. Nothing is happening anymore. We are making no progress. The clock stopped moving.

You see, it is in our human nature to desire to conquer mountain-after-mountain. To want to keep going. We set goals, we have timelines, we know exactly how we want our lives to pan out. A ray of success seems to spur us to want to go for the next triumph. And then, something happens – and we seem to lose our beat.

It seems like life is a long, winding road – with many twists and turns. It’s exasperating.

In Exodus 13:17, the Bible says

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

The Scriptwriter in His Wisdom, knows every detail of the journey. And so He takes us through this long route – if only to give us a moment to catch our breath. He knows just where to pull the stops – to allow us build our inner capacity, to exercise our mental strength. And so we must survive the lull period; Strengthened by our past victory – and preparing ourselves for what lies ahead.

The truth is, our ‘experience’ in such moments is unnerving. We find ourselves in foreign territory, having left the places that we knew – And yet, threatened that the challenges of the past might be coming at us again. We are faced with the threat of failure, lack, rejection – all those things that we had momentarily triumphed over.

In Exodus 14:10, the Bible says

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.

And so it is, for many of us, we conquered a mountain, but our celebration seems to have been cut short. The challenges of life are threatening to take us out – the Egyptians we had conquered are lurking around us again.

It is in such moments, that God steps in – and does that which only He can do. Like Moses told the children of Israel in Exodus 14:14

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still

The greatest battle in such moments is really to overcome ourselves. To overcome the urge To Make It Happen. To allow ourselves to fully Trust in God – and then watch Him step into our situations. You see, it takes strength to find Stillness in the moment of Crisis. And yet, that’s what God requires of us – to come to a moment of a Total Surrender.

I pray we will find the grace to exercise Trust in God. That we will truly believe that He will fight for us – and somehow have a Knowing that the Scriptwriter has this one figured out.

At some points in the journey of Destiny, it’s okay to Lose Control.

Bon Voyage.