"You Are the Boss of Me": My Life's Philosophy

    "You are the boss of me. You don't have to do what I say.", said my then four year old son.

     "Yes, Timmy, that is correct." I answered back.

     "I can't tell you what to do, but you can tell me what do." Tim said, giving me an adorably earnest and sincere nod.

That conversation occurred 11years ago after my four year old thought he had the same authority as his mom and dad. I educated him with a minor show of might (I picked him up off the swing he was playing on), and forceful diplomacy(I reminded him of whose will was sovereign in the Gray family). Even as I think about that story now I smile because the sincerity of his voice and earnest nod of his head assured me that he understood.

My life philosophy boils down to one statement.

     You are God and I am not.

You answer my What is the meaning of life? question. You are my rhyme and reason when life stops making sense. My recent interactions with You remind me of that conversation I had with my little boy years ago. The struggle for authority in my heart never ends.

     Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 2:12NKJV

You created. You envisioned the universe and spoke it into existence. How and when remains a mystery, with more and more clues being discovered everyday, written in the coded language of science. You longed for relationship so You fashioned humans, with the Words You spoke from Your mouth, the clay You shaped and molded with Your hands, and the kiss of life in the breath from Your lips. 

Ours was to be a love story. A connection between Creator/Author and the created/character, a vision brought to life. You made us in Your image with the will to choose, so we wrote our own story, taking the pen from Your hand and scratching out everything You outlined. The end of our story would be worse than death, it would literally be hell, eternal damnation; the scariest story ever written. That was the story we created until in Your kindness and love for Your creation, You penned a new story, full of battles, and a Hero who stormed the gates of hell, defeating death and assuring once and for all that we would live happily ever after with the One who designed us for His good pleasure and His glory.

Yours is The Story of the ages. Ours is a story within The Story, written to draw readers in so the truth and Your glory would be revealed. The truth is it is Your world and we are just living in it. The glory is that You are good and Your goodness has already triumphed over evil and that all will be revealed, that everything will work for our good because Your story envelopes and overshadows ours as we look unto You, the One who started and finished our story. We simply watch unfold as we obey the steps outlined in Your story recorded in Your Word.

So, I say Your will be done. I don't get to tell You what to do. You are the boss of me and everything. Why? Because You are Creator God, You are my Savior God, who authored my salvation, my faith. You are my King with Your will being sovereign. I lay the pen down. Please write as You will. I want my story to bring You glory.  I am saved and I know my story ends in Heaven, where it really just begins. My story there is being written by how well I follow your story here.  All that you ask of me, the faith to say YES I need a Savior. Yes I will follow YOUR plan illustrated by Your Word. Yes I will move forward in You, where You lead, how You say because I know the end.  You and I live and love happily ever after.