Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown
- Henry IV, Shakespeare
How many of us remember singing J Baird’s lyrics: “He’s got the whole world in his hands”? So comforting, so very reassuring. Until, that is, we are around 12 or 13 and begin noticing that life doesn’t always show up the way we hoped or worked for, which, we think, means that God isn’t paying attention to our worlds.
“He dropped the whole wide world from his hands…”
And how does this translate into the development of my modus operandi?
I’m in charge of my life and its outcomes
If something needs to be changed, it’s up to me
Cue: Grrrr, Gaaaaah, Strain, Hernias
Okay, with some of us, we know better than to come right out and say that we are in charge of our worlds, so we add “under God,” with a wink and a nod toward the heavens.
“No, no, no Wilson. I really mean, “under God.”
Great. Then you won’t mind answering a few questions.
How often do you experience feelings of fear and failure, when life doesn’t live up to your expectations; say, when you didn’t get the job, your candidate wasn’t elected, or you were unable to move people toward your chosen path?
Do you frequently find yourself wringing your hands and obsessing over your plight, their predicament, or its demise?
Does the word “despair” often pop-up in your conversations with close friends?
What these states of mind and heart tell us is that we do believe that it’s up to us to make things happen: to change it, them, and that guy over there.
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” eh?
The “unease” – the fear, the anxiety, the hand wringing - is due to the fact that God gives us no grace for seeking to be “rulers of our own fate,” much less for seeking to be the masters of others.
There’s only one crown, here, and it belongs to the Creator and Sustainer of all life.
The world is in God’s hands. Your world is in God’s hands, which, with even the smallest degree of self-awareness, should come as a relief. We perform our duties out of love for God and others, trusting God will use our obedience, As. He. Sees. Fit. We can pray, “Let this cup pass from me,” or even, “Let this cup come to me!” as long as our overriding prayer is, “Nevertheless, your will be done.”
Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2018
