The C.E.O. stares blindly out at the spectacular view from his office window. After years of conniving and manipulation he is at the helm of the company. He had great plans for his future but circumstances have dictated otherwise. He ponders the wreckage of two failed marriages and children who rarely call. He has no friends in the company. His dictatorial style of management left no room for friendship. He tries to think of someone, anyone he can call just to talk, just to help ease the burden of his position. He can think of no one. He stares at the year-end financial statement lying on his solid oak desk. The profit margin has shrunk and his benefits have disappeared. He knows it will be a matter of days before he is unemployed. A man who controlled the flow of millions of dollars and the lives of thousands of employees has hit the brick wall of reality. His control of his own destiny was an illusion.

Since the garden of Eden, control has been a big issue. It was Satan'­s ploy to tempt Eve with the illusion that she could control her own destiny. Adam thought that would be a good thing. We have lived with that illusion ever since. Eventually, the illusion runs into the brick wall of reality. Adam and Eve ran into that wall when God gave them what they wanted. They were given a measure of control. Control over how to get rid of the weeds that suddenly choked their garden. Control over how to keep away from animals that had turned vicious. Control over how to keep warm and dry in a climate gone haywire. Adam and Eve soon realized their desire for control led to a reality of struggle and misery. Like the C.E.O. described above, they found themselves floundering.

Our drive for control has shaped history as well as our personal lives. Scratch the surface of every conflict, global or individual, corporate or domestic, and you will find issues of control. Perhaps that?­s why the scriptures tell us, over and over again, that we must allow God to be God. We must relinquish control to the One who is able to hold it, the One who in fact, holds ??all authority in heaven and on earth?? (Matthew 28:18). Perhaps that is why the scriptures tell us it is when we acknowledge our dependence on God we find the freedom we so desperately want. For it is ??in Him we live and move and have our being.?? (Acts 17:28). It is when we give up our desire to control that we place ourselves in right relationship to God.

Each one of us is the C.E.O. of our own lives. We are able to choose. Illusion or reality. Which will it be?