Traffic Controllers

Over the last week, Psalm 46: 10 has come up over and over again. Whether at church, talking to friends, or um, yes, even random mail, the verse has been showing up.

"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

You have to love the punctuation of that sentence. "Be still [pause] and know that I am God."


It's a call to quiet trust; a rest in God's sovereignty over, ahem, our own. It's a letting go of control.

The Message translation is poignant in highlighting this swap of control. It reads: "Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God. above politics, above everything."

Traffic and politics: two of the most restless terms in English; the stuff that's responsible for more high blood pressure than almost anything else in our culture. But besides stroke and cardiac arrest, they have something else in common-- short-lived importance. Whether it's the 5 minutes (or more) on our drive home from work, or the four years (or more) our country spends trying to select, er, elect, a new president, in comparison with eternity they are of miniscule importance.

God says, step out of it, get perspective, look at me.See things from where I sit. I AM in control, not, in fact, you.

Nathan and I were talking yesterday about how angry we get over traffic, and how hard days--not BAD days,but just simply difficult days-- are enough to throw us off all night, maybe even all week, resulting in sleeplessness, irritability, distraction. Suddenly our focus isn't on what God's doing, but on our immediate anxieties, anger, and frustrations.

God says we don't have to stay there, it doesn't have to be like that.

He calls us to step out of the raucous traffic of petty politics, tractor trailers, busy-ness, drama, and short-lived frustrations. He says we don't have to control it, fight it, or let our lives get caught up in it as if that's all there is.

He says He is in the one over it all--not only "over" it, as in bigger-than, but also over it as in, controlling it, responsible for it. And in trusting Him, then we don't have let our lives in turn be controlled by the other stuff.

You don't have to control today; you don't have to let the traffic run over you. You can get some perspective-- turn a long and loving look to the God who is over all--and you can safely place your traffic controllers in His very capable hands.