The Blessedness of Relinquishing Control

Nothing can be taken from us if we have no insistence upon retaining anything. The more we are able to relinquish control over the externalities of our lives the more peace we may enjoy.

The ‘Quiet Enjoyment’ of Life Experience

In tenancy terms, a landlord must respect the rights of the tenant so far as the quiet enjoyment of the property they rent under contract is concerned.

God, our landlord, extends those same rights to us—that we may enjoy the right of occupation in our mortal bodies, our comprehensive minds, and the collective soul.

As we consider God our landlord, and our bodies, minds and souls as the property under lease, we suddenly comprehend the level of control that we have. The right of quiet enjoyment is enough, though many might look down their noses at a rental agreement versus the option of mortgage and ‘home’ ownership.

Indeed, many run from God all their lives only to finish the race fully paid-up (‘owning’ their homes) yet bankrupt; it was never their property to claim; a rental agreement was all that was available; they signed a contract with a counterfeit party we know to be the devil. It is the devil that sows the lie that life is all ours without account.

The wise person understands that the property must be given back to God at the end of the lease. What we have, however, is blessing enough—quiet enjoyment of life experience. It’s enough for anybody.

What We Ought To Control

The nature of the rental agreement empowers the lessee to rights beyond quiet enjoyment, as they may use that property for a purpose that it is designed for. For instance, if a refrigeration works is leased, that facility should be used by a company in the business of keeping refrigerated goods or providing refrigerated services.

Likewise, the practical control we have is over the purpose and meaning of our lives is the inauguration and propagation of our identities.

This we should come to fully know, as far as it’s practicable for us to know ourselves, and this we should also protect—ensuring our personality identity is indemnified, all the while anticipating the changes that may, at various stages, reframe our life flow. Occasionally the landlord will decide, upon allowable notice, to transform the terms of the contract. Change does occur, and it is a fact that our purpose may change even a handful of times over a lifetime. Much of the time it is us, and not the landlord, that initiates change.

We have charge over the present state: what we are constructed for, what we can achieve, in quiet enjoyment, which is relative freedom.

Situational control is nothing to be sneezed at. It is privilege enough.

Accepting What May Occur

Our circumstances may change and they may change us, but we order the changes to our identities—no one else does this, barring God. The Lord, we have to accept, brings change at times for whatever reasons; sometimes far beyond our rationality.

Accepting the things we cannot change in life is a great protective mechanism shifting the ordinary burden of ownership back where it rightly belongs. It’s God’s territory and only the Lord can distribute contract for life.

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If we insist on maintaining control over externalities we may find life compels us to change our identities. This is a great irony. To demand control is to, at the same time, lose control. The blessedness of relinquishing control is we gain complete relative control over the use of our minds, bodies and souls. They are ours for quiet enjoyment.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.