Maybe it was like this in every home. Dad had a chair where he would sit to watch TV or read the newspaper. It was a comfy chair positioned just right to see the (can you believe a 25” screen?) television. If dad was home, no one could sit in his chair. I’m not sure we were allowed to sit in it when he wasn’t home, but we did. The best chair Dad had was covered in brown fur like a big brown grizzly bear, and my brother and I would take turns spinning each other around like a merry go round. This fun was perhaps only rivaled by when we would use the coffee table to slide down the stairs.

“Get out of my chair!”  dad said gruffly one evening after a long day at work. We quickly abandoned the prime seat recognizing that it was not our place to be seated there. Now as a softened grandpa, my dad urges his grandchildren to crawl up in his chair with him.

Remembering this story from childhood, makes me think of how I act when I think God isn’t around to take care of things. I climb up in his chair to take a spin, deciding I am influential enough to control people or circumstances. For example, if I do or say this, then a certain outcome will result. Putting it down in words, it is easy to see the disillusionment I have in this mentality because there is very little I can control. However, I am honored to know the One who is completely sovereign and completely in control.

Is God prodding you to step down from that self-assumed position of command you took on – to relinquish control as God’s best helper and asking you to trust Him in the details? Is God requesting, very politely of course, to please get out of His chair so he can manage the details of your life, relationships, finances and future from His throne? Or maybe as His dearly beloved child,  He wants you to crawl up into his chair with Him, not to control but to be in His presence.