A label locks me into a definition that people use to control me. A vision graces me with an idea that serves to release me.

To those who have resigned themselves to the sorry belief that they are forever held captive to the currents of life, I would suggest that they take some time to learn what the oars in their boat are for.

Large or small, I always have a choice. But I also have a choice to think that I don’t have a choice.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ stilted rigid by our traditions, held a suffering captive to our denominational creeds, and parsed thin by our need to control our faith rather than submit to it is not compelling to anyone…except the ones who are so enamored with what they’ve created that they’ve forgotten that they created it.

We are not the masters of our own fate, for to leave something as monumental as that in our own hands is to seal our fate. And I suppose that in that sense, we might be the masters of our own fate.

We are at the disposal of all the resources that we have at our disposal. Therefore, the illusion is that we control them when in fact they control us. And hopefully we’ll figure out that God is the single resource at our disposal that is designed to free us from everything else that is at our disposal.

Maturity means being able to accept the fact that sometimes the things that we wish for will create the histories that we don’t wish for.

We’re making our decisions … or so we think. Yet in truth, ignorance, greed, and the scourge of immediate gratification are often the things that are making them. So if we’re going to truly live well, maybe the first thing we need to decide is who’s deciding.

I pray that I am never so foolishly naive or roguishly pompous to think that I can be the captain of my own ship, for if God is not at the helm my ship will soon be at the bottom.