You Are Not Your Own. You Were Bought At A Price.

We often hear of stories in which someone who is dying comes to accept that they are "no longer in control of their life." Perhaps they are battling cancer or suffering the effects of a lifetime of bad choices, or perhaps they merely come to such a conclusion because they recently lost someone close to them or their life has suddenly spiraled out of control. No matter what the circumstances, those who come into contact with the reality of death all come to the same conclusion: you are not in control. We can all relate to such a realization at some point or another in our lives, yet we must ask ourselves why on earth it takes so many of us until we are staring death in the face to realize that we are powerless. We thought we were the ruler of our own lives, but we couldn't be more wrong.

If there is anything in this life that is certain, it is death. From the moment we are born we are slowly dying---growing older with age, maturing, and preparing ourselves for that imminent moment in which we must be held accountable for the life which we have lived. We all know that we cannot escape it, yet most of us spend our lives trying to avoid it. We try to push it out of our minds as if death does not exist, yet it is always looming, lurking around every corner. We could die at any moment. Heart attack, car wreck, cancer---the possibilities are endless. When death is finally near, we fight for our lives, yet the majority of our lives are spent living as if we didn’t care if we died at all.

Perhaps it is only through the realization that we are dying that any of us can ever truly understand that it is not us, but rather God, who is in control of our lives. It’s funny how often we talk about “giving God control of our lives” in Christian circles, as though at some point we somehow took it from Him. In reality, we never had it in the first place. We were brought into the world as entirely dependent creatures and we will die as entirely dependent creatures. From the moment we were born our lives were in the hands of someone else. As newborns we could not sit up on our own, we could not control our bodily functions, we could not even speak for ourselves. All we could do is trust that someone would care for us and humbly cry out for help in our time of need. Are we really so different now? We’d like to think that we are, but we could lose all such privileges at any given moment. Some of us may even know someone who actually has lost such privileges, such basic functions as the ability to move their limbs, to remember where they were five minutes ago, or to utter a coherent sentence. And yet, we still can’t fathom that such a thing could ever happen to us. They may no longer have control, but we still do. Right?

We are so often fooled into believing that we are in control because of the simple decisions we make---where to live, when to wake up in the morning, what to wear, where to work---that we forget that even the ability to make a decision is a gift given to us by God. Every second I make a decision to breathe in and breathe out. Every second I make a decision to live on, yet is it I who creates the very breath I am taking? When my body begins to fail, can I renew it? Can I cause my own heart to pump blood through my veins? Can I cause my lungs to deliver air to my suffocating body? No. All I can do is surrender to the fact that I breathe only because each breath is given to me. My body is not my own. My life is not my own. I am not in control of anything at all, but merely a vessel which God has given the gift of life. He is the potter, I am the clay. No matter what shape I take, I am still the clay. I cannot form myself out of the mire. I cannot carve intricate patterns into my delicate being. All I can do is say, “Here I am, Lord. Take me” and recognize the reality that were He to remove His hand from me for even one second as my life spins on, I would crumble.

If you are to take anything out of this post at all, let it be this: You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20) He has carefully and intricately created you to be not even a vase or a jar, but a temple. Do not be deceived and live your live as though you are an ashtray. Do not forget the price that was paid on the cross so that you would no longer have to be an ashtray. And do not for one second forget that you are the created, not the creator.