Illusions

I like to believe I’m in charge.  Just to be clear about my meaning, I want, need, and would like to think that I am in control.  As I start a new day by reflecting I can see that no matter how strong my desire may be it is at best an illusive dream!  In reality there is nothing within my span of experience that I control.  When I go through the major parts of my life everything becomes clear.  Teenage daughters?  No chance!  Wife of twenty five years?  Are you kidding?  Work?  No chance of that being a serious question.  Dog or cats?  Really now.  How about home life?  Every aspect is at best an area of influence.
 
The list goes on and on but my illusions remain strong.  I would like to believe that I am the man of the house.  Physically it is true.  The only other male is an aging cat but the point purely remains a figment of my imagination.  Everyone lives with personal desires, goals, and personal need for self determination.  The idea that my rule is final, all inclusive, or mandatory is, which I think, at the heart of everything that my values and priorities stand against! 
 
I believe in freedom!  I believe love is the force in the universe that drives everything.  I believe compassion, freedom and love lived in action, is the measure.  Control is a tool of oppression.  Being in charge is often a vehicle for manipulation.  Live is for living! 
 
It could be argued that even without our souls there is a battle for control.  Love versus self, freedom versus control, compassion versus accountability, mercy versus justice, and acceptance versus conditions.
 
It is then that I smell flowers, grass, and hope in a morning breeze.  I know that we are “not in charge here.  The Father who sent me is in charge.  He draws people to me—that's the only way you'll ever come.  Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End.”  (John 6.44)