LYNDI LEE MARKUS
Train – Develop – Care | Editor-in-Chief for Upfront
To relinquish mastery is to relinquish control.
Am I the only one challenged by the thought that my efforts to know Scripture, to know God, to have the right answers, the best quiet times, the right life—might not be all I need to foster deep relationship with God? That maybe it’s not about my doing anything at all?
In the world of balances, the flip side of work is rest. The flip side of obedience is abiding. The flip side of mastery is mystery. For all we can absolutely know and trust about God, there is an infinitude of things we cannot. It’s the concrete versus the spacious and fluid. Can we rest from striving to “master” Christianity, and exhale into trust that we can truly experience Him?
This trust is liminal—an in-between space where I accept I can’t control God or even my experience of Him. At some point, I will reach my limit for knowing about Jesus, and all the intellectual excellence I can master will seem stiff and insufficient. Yet in my weakness, He shows up. I see Him in mysterious, glorious ways (beauty, community, His suffering alongside my own) that awaken not just my intellect but my imagination. He meets me relationally, with tenderness and grace.
In any true relationship, we can’t control the other person or keep them manageable. The same is true with God: the longer we walk with Him, the more we need to experience His presence. This rest forms deep reservoirs in our souls, so we respond to others from our overflow—out of peace, not anxiety; out of love, not obligation; out of steady connection, not chaos. We give what God has given us—not to manage His movements in others’ lives, but because His life is rebuilding ours as He walks with us. The mystery of our faith is that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.
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