Monday, February 24, 2014

The Illusion of Control


Letting go is one of the hardest tasks that we humans have been called to do. It goes completely against the grain of what society tells us, of what we desire, of who we are.

Even more, letting go is terrifying. It taps into many, if not all, our greatest fears: It thrusts us into the unknown. It makes us vulnerable to pain and betrayal. It forces us to admit we are weak, broken, limited.

So we clutch and grab. We manipulate and calculate. We scheme and plot and plan. We erect barriers, extract revenge, school ourselves to not care, and defy anything or anyone who gets in our way. All because we do not want to let go. It is safer that way, we try to convince ourselves.

Yet this is a lie, a grand deception we’ve talked ourselves into believing because we want to believe it. We want to control our destiny, produce our own happiness, “become like God.”

The problem is that we have no ability to bring about any of these things no matter how much we might want it. We are powerless, unable to master ourselves much less anyone else. Desires drive us. Cravings control us. Temptations exploit our every weakness, proving resistance truly is futile.

And so in the end we discover our control is only illusion.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your short and insightful article. I found it as I was posting an article about the illusion of control. If you have a chance, check it out. I would love to hear what you think. Thanks!
http://364daysofthanksgiving.com/lifes-little-day/