Handler

My brother and I were talking yesterday and he brought up the subject of handlers. People who handle stuff for other people. That word is not used too much but I recently heard it another time when my cousin Blake, whose husband recently and unexpectedly died from and ruptured anneurism, referred to her sister Blanche as being her handler through the whole crisis. She stepped in knowing what Blake needed...she knew her personality and she knew how to fill in the cracks of the chaos.....Blanche has that "can do...will do" personality.... someone to make the calls and point Blake in the right direction and help her to organize the many responsibilities that were upon her in the midst of all the uncertainty...Blanche was right there to help at every turn. But Blake will tell you that she needed a handler...and Blanche was just the one to step in....and she and her husband continue to be wonderful support for the whole family.

But handlers can only do so much....they can suggest and advise and be sounding boards and dig up necessary resources...but when all is said and done...responsibility of the handler is limited to how much the one who is handled submits to their lead. Because they are the ones who have to make final life decisions.....for themselves and in conjunction with others who they may be responsible for.

Sometimes we fall into a haze of uncertainty and chaos and we are so glad that someone cares enough to invest their time and their efforts for our benefit and other times we are resentful of someone else trying to incorporate their opinions and their advise on something we think they have no clue about. Handlers are there to be helpful...they are people who supposedly have our best interest at the heart of their help. But a handlers job is not so much to be full time job but a shared job....with responsibility being shared among both parties.

Many times, a trap we fall into is that we become so dependent on the handler that we soon lose the initiative to take on the needed responsibility for our own lives. We just let someone else handle it. We allow that to happen in our own families with our own children. We as parents want to do so much for our children and help them along the way....and that is good to an extent....but what we are really suppose to be doing as parents is to help them be independent thinkers....not relying on the opinions of us but taking the leads from us, as their handlers, that they have grown up with and deciding on their own what to keep and what to discard. And by doing this, this makes each one responsible for their own actions and the consequences that may come from them.

Now how do we compare God as our handler to us as parents being handlers. Similarly...God offers up a best way for us to go...but gives us free will to make an independent decision on our own as to whether or not we choose to adhere to it. He lets us grow into independent thinkers...or maybe he helps us to grow into independent thinkers....by way of experience through trials and joys.We as parents have done the same with our kids...no matter what age....we had it done by our parents to us. The one difference, and it is a vital one....in God being a handler of us and we being the handler of our children is this:

We are handlers to be working ourselves out of a job...while God is a handler working towards a full time job. He wants each of our directions to be shifted to HIM! For he doesn't outgrow His responsibility...He wants us to outgrow our dependency on the world and the world's views....and shift our eyes towards HIM...in everything we do, everything we say...and everything we think. He wants us to be dependent on Him...to listen to his advice, to be a sounding board for our concerns and cares, to help us dig up resources of faith and forgiveness and grace and strength.

We as parents will always be parents no matter what age our children are...but as our children become adults, it is their responsibility to transfer the handling of their lives to God. Handling comes in stages....when we are young children we are dependent on our parents...as we grow older we resent the handling and want to make decisions on our own...the older we get the bigger the decisions...and the harder the decisions.... and then when we get older still...and it is then that we begin to rethink this whole independent thing...and hopefully come to a realization that we are no so good at being our own handlers....and we need a little heavenly help.

Parents have given us a first leg of independence but for us to be able to stand confidently and security we have to plant the other leg on Holy ground. It is kind of a backwards way of thinking about independence....but for us to be truly free....we have to be able to rely on faith in the fact that God is in control ...of all things, and all people....and it is not until we let go of our own reigns and give them to God that we will be able to live free of bitterness, of frustration, of guilt, of shame, of the constant need to change other people, or the insecurity of believing that we are not ever worthy enough or adequate enough to be included in God's kingdom...or that we have made so many mistakes that they could never be forgotten much less forgiven...Free to enjoy life and find peace even in the midst of chaos. Free to accept the fact that God uses all things that happen for his purposes of ultimate good.

God is offering to be our lifetime handler....but even this requires us to be a partner with Him. We have to willingly give up the reigns....into His hands. Our independence comes from having a free will...the will to admit we need heavenly help...or the will to decline the opportunity, the advise, the leadership and the many blessings that come with the decision.

We all need earthly handlers....to help us out when things get tough or to just be a friend when we are in need.....BUT God in all of his authority knows who to send as his handling agents....it may be us as parents...or teachers....or mentors...or just a stranger saying something that goes straight to our heart. But it is our responsibility to care for this life that God has given us...and the only handler that can take on that kind of responsibility .....with guaranteed good consequences is God himself.

So who is you handler?
2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Dear Lord, help us to be willing to allow you the reigns of our lives...to be our heavenly handler. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation he has allowed you to be in...for His glory will shine through.
www.cathyjodeit.com
http://simplygod-cathy.blogspot.com/