Control Issues -- Nah, I've Crossed that Off My List

How many of you like lists? Do you check it twice? You get great pleasure from scratching an item off the list, don’t you? A sense of accomplishment. I started thinking about Noah (in the wee morning hours when my husband woke me with his snoring) and wondered what kind of checklist must Noah or his wife must have had. I went back and reread Genesis 6. God told Noah what His intentions were – “to destroy both them and the earth” (Gen 6:14). I did not see where God told Noah anything about being on the ark for 40 days of rain plus additional days to let the water settle.


Have you ever been on a trip for longer than three days? Did you make a list?

Ever gone grocery shopping for the month or for a couple of weeks without a list?

It isn’t until chapter 7 that God tells Noah, Oh yeah, by the way, in seven days I’m going to send the rain for 40 days and nights. He gives Noah seven days to gather food and provisions for what Noah hears as 40 days. Are you kidding me? I’d be trippin’ and stressin’!

I wonder what their list looked like:

• Bales of hay for _____ animals to use in the stalls

• Grain for _______ animals for the trip

• Water for all the animals

• Containers to hold the water

• Tools to be able to muck the stalls

• Bananas for the monkeys

• Birdseed for the birds

• Mice for the snakes

• Container to hold the mice for the snakes

• Container for the snakes

• Aviary for the birds – maybe we’ll give them half the floor of one level of the ship

• Clothes

• Pots

• Pans

• Fire (How do I cook on a wooden boat?)

• Family heirlooms

• Furniture

• Food for us

• Sheets and fabrics

• Equipment

• Scissors

• Soap

• Canned goods

Do you see how the list could just go on and on? And they had seven days. Seven days are in the story of the Creation too, but Noah and his family didn’t get to rest. Their journey had just begun.

Here’s the thing. We know that no one starved to death. We know the animals survived, so obviously there were enough provisions. Was that by accident? I think not. Noah was walking and talking with God. He was doing everything that God had commanded him to do, and God led Noah.

How often do we fret and worry about things that are coming up over which we have no control? What would happen if you would rest in God, listen for His voice, and do everything He commands you? A big move? A new job? Financial issues? Health issues? We grasp at straws by making lists and checking them twice. We do it so we can feel there is some sort of order or that we have some sort of control. But what if we lived like Noah? Walking with God. Talking with God. Doing everything He commands us. And live in a rudderless life because God is in complete control. I think that, my friend, sounds like peace.