Control Issue

Control Issues - I think they are the underlying causes of everything.
What is a control issue?  Simply wanting to control over someone or something.

So, say you're moving out of home for the first time in your life.  Or perhaps you're going away on holiday.  Now your mother is excited for you, of course, but she bursts into tears as you say your goodbyes.  Why?
I would say it's a control issue.  By which I mean that your mother won't be able to keep an eye on you like she has.  She won't be able to be Mother so much anymore.
Now before you say I'm being insensitive, don't blow it all out of proportion.  I'm not saying she’s not entitled to be upset.  What I want you to do is tell me any other underlying reasons for her tears that contradict what I’ve said, and justify those reasons.  You don’t have to use this as the only example; I can list many more situations for you.

We live in a world where we like to think we define truth – let me explain.
I saw a documentary the other day of a lady who was a teacher and had sex with one of her students, a 15 year old guy.  The interviewer asked her what she thought about the fact that she was a paedophile. The lady replied aghast that she didn’t see herself as a paedophile.  The interviewer pressed saying that the law defined her as one, and that it was the truth, she was a paedophile.  The lady was left speechless.  She was presented with a truth that she had no control over, and it baffled her.
Too often we justify our actions in our head.  We like to define what we’re allowed to do and we come up with reasons that, in our mind at least, let us off the hook.  Yet we know these things are wrong, so much so, that if we see someone else doing them, we get annoyed with them and maybe even tell them off.  Yet we do the very same things.  Take, for instance, driving your car.
There you are, approaching a compulsory Stop.  You can clearly see the road ahead and that it’s clear for you to go, so instead on coming to a complete stop, you roll on through and carry on your merry way.  That instant you hear someone tooting their horn at you.  They screech to a halt a few inches from your car.  You, of course, tell yourself that you haven’t done anything wrong, you just didn’t see them.  You’re only human after all, not perfect.
A few minutes later, at another intersection, someone else fails to stop completely at their compulsory stop as you approach, and you have to slam on your brakes.  The roles are reversed.  What’s your reaction?  I guarantee you're not sitting there thinking that it’s ok; after all they’re just human, not perfect.  You’d be yelling your head off at them, right?  I know I would.
But hang on, you justified your mistake and let yourself off.  Why can’t you let them off?
You were in control of your mistake – which, of course, wasn’t a mistake; just a slight oversight on your behalf and anyone could do it.  But you weren’t in control of their mistake.  You can’t stop them from doing it again, now can you?  You want to do the best you can to ensure they aren’t so dumb in the future so you let them know how you feel.  The truth is you were in the wrong as much as they were, and thus the driver who nearly hit you has just as much justification in yelling at you as you do of yelling at this guy.  Ironically though, assuming no one here is perfect, no one should be yelling at all because we’ve all been the cause so we all need to be more careful!

Here’s the climax of the whole issue:  when Eve was deceived into taking the fruit off the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, she was told it would make her like God – knowing good and evil.  It would mean she was in control.
Ironically, God wanted her to be like Him – He made her in His image.  She was just going about becoming like Him her own way.  Her sin wasn’t eating the fruit; her sin was doing what she wanted, and not what God had planned.  It was a control issue.
God is God, He wants to be God, and no one else should try to fill His role.  He made us in such a way that we will slowly fall apart if we don’t submit to Him.
It is because we don’t submit to Him that this world is falling apart.  It is the cause of all the pain and all the suffering in this world today.  You will never really know happiness and meaningfulness in life until you learn to submit to God every aspect of your life.  And to submit, you have to realise your position in relation to God.  Most likely, thus far in life, you have pretty much done what you want.  This is what God calls Sin and sin separates us from God.  We need God’s forgiveness in order to come to Him.  And in order to be forgiven, we are required to repent.  Now repent is a fancy word that comes from two words meaning “after” and “to think”.  Simply put, it means we must admit we are wrong and commit to living life the way He intended – submitted to Him.  Welcome to Christianity.