Jeremiah 10:23-24

I know, O Lord, that the way of human beings is not in their control,
    that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps.
Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure;
    not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing.

The way of human beings is not in their control.

Does that make you feel better or worse?

Secure or afraid?

Free or held back?

Powerless or emboldened?

Our freedom is something still hotly debated within and without faith communities.

There is something to knowing we have free will and that God allows us to make some judgments for our own lives.

But there is also something freeing in knowing, as those in AA know, that we are powerless over some things in our lives. Whether that be alcohol, gambling, food addiction, dysfunctional families, etc.

Yet that powerlessness does not mean we are completely powerless over every aspect of our lives.

Just as knowing that the way of human beings not being in our control also does not make us powerless in every aspect of our lives.

There are things about being human we cannot control: our birth; our death; our taxes, (Ha, thanks Ben Franklin!); some things about our health, security, and emotional status; and more.

And yet how we live into and react to our humanness and the boundaries that God has given us is very often in our control.

That learning to live into and react to our humanness is very much the journey of life and faith. That learning to trust God's grace, as well as God's sense of justice, is part of that journey.

Lack of control need not always mean powerlessness.

And powerlessness does not minimize us.

It makes us human.

Holy one, I am powerlessness over the human condition. Teach me how to be human. Amen.