The news this morning adds one more issue for the White House: it's covered in white.  The northeast is suffering its worst blizzard in seven years.  A quarter of a million homes and businesses are without power.  At least 28 deaths have resulted from the storm system.  Some parts of Ohio report ice eight inches thick.  16 inches of snow have fallen on Washington, creating one of the worst snowstorms in a century for our nation's capital.  The storm will cost Maryland as much as $30 million, and New York City some $20 million.  Right now, in the northeast, the storm is in charge.

We get up and prepare for the day to go according to our plans.  We like to eat breakfast at the same time, drive the same roads, park in the same place, go to the same work.  We think we're in charge.  But then we learn we're not.

Your son's teacher calls for an appointment with you.  Your tearful daughter says she needs to talk.  Your doctor asks you to come to his office to discuss your test results.  Your phone rings at three in the morning.  The bus carrying you and your friends to a Christian concert in Dallas hits bad weather.  And suddenly you're not in charge any longer.

The writer of Proverbs knew better: "Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud" (16:19); "Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life" (22:4); "A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor" (29:23).  There's only one Person in charge.  And it's not us.

Francis of Assisi taught his followers, "Blessed is the servant who does not esteem himself as better when he is praised and promoted by men than when they look on him as vile, stupid and contemptible; for whatever a man is in the sight of God, that he is, and no more."

John Bunyan's pilgrims heard a shepherd boy dressed in "very mean cloths" but singing these words:

 He that is down, needs fear no Fall;
  He that is low, no Pride:
 He that is humble, ever shall
  Have God to be his Guide.

 I am content with what I have,
  Little be it or much:
 And, Lord, Contentment still I crave,
  Because thou savest such.

 Fullness to such, a Burden is,
  That go on Pilgrimage:
 Here little, and hereafter Bliss,
  Is best from Age to Age
(Pilgrim's Progress 282).

Are you in charge of this Tuesday?  Or is God?

Copyright © 2003.  James C. Denison.  All rights reserved.