Your Life – Who Runs It?

By Shemiah Barnes

I want to see the Manager! Who is in charge here?!

I was recently with a group of young people on a leadership training course. It was quite entertaining to watch them argue about the best way to solve a particular group challenge which was set for them. The argument went for a whole hour! In the midst of their heated discussion, one of them yelled out, ‘Who is in charge here?!’

The interesting thing to note in just about every situation is that someone will most certainly end up taking charge. In fact, if we take the time to think about it, every single one of us will have someone or something in charge of our thoughts, opinions, beliefs, emotions and decisions! So, hopefully we are secure enough to ask the question, ‘Who or what is influencing what I think, say and do?

The people or things that come to mind right now are probably in charge of your life! We are all influenced by someone or something. I can remember watching a movie about a submarine on a military mission. I was expecting the particular captain in this movie to have a heart attack as he ran around barking orders to his crew members! Interestingly enough, not once in the movie did the captain actually have the steering wheel or controls in his hand. Even though specific crew members had the buttons at their fingertips, they took their charge from the captain who had clear authority and was in charge. No single person on this earth is in charge of themselves. But! We all get to steer our own ship!

Have you ever tried keeping two fulltime jobs? You answered, ‘No’, right? That’s because no one can serve two masters; but everyone has a master. The Bible says that we are either slaves to sin or slaves to godliness, which is also called ‘righteousness’. We can’t be slaves to both. In the end, we can only obey one of them. Either sin or God will be our master. Rom 6. So who or what is in charge of us?

Do you remember the famous account in the Bible, where a woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus to be punished? Jesus had a lesson in mind for the woman’s accusers. He asked for anyone who had no sin, to throw the first stone at the woman. The Bible tells us that those who were gathered were convicted by their conscience in regard to their own sin and left the woman alone. Jesus forgave this woman who was a slave to sin, and she was no longer enslaved to that master.

What influences you? Who is your master? For a Christian, God is in charge! How? He leads, directs, convicts and prompts us through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to speak with us about us. His voice is the still, small voice that is loud enough to be heard, but also quiet enough to be ignored.