Choosing Connection Over Control

Description

Part of being human is the tension between control and connection. Anne Lamott says we can all be a “control enthusiast.” Abraham’s grief over Sarah gives me a mirror for the church within, the part of us that forgets love and drifts toward power, reputation, and the urge “to control everyone.” Swedenborg names that slide as the love of self and the world taking the wheel, while God fiercely protects our freedom so love can be real. So I practice open-ended questions that I cannot know the answer to. “Who’s on your heart today?” “What does love know?” I ask, and I listen. I do not know what they’re going to say, and that is where grace breaks in. Gossip fades when curiosity grows. Boundaries matter, like banks for a river, yet the flow belongs to love. Nobody has ever come to me saying, “I feel too connected to the people I love.” How can we make sure to keep re-centering ourselves around God’s deep grace, choosing connection along the way?