What it Doesn’t Mean that “God Is In Control”

Image by Theresa Beadle

I’m writing this morning from the screened porch of the Lily Pad, our tiny cabin in SW Michigan, where we’ve been for the last two weeks. David and I take July off as a sabbatical month. (We started early this year!) We will go back and forth from Indy to our cabin over the course of this month. As is often the case during my sabbatical month, I will read, think, pray, and write about a topic that feels alive and pertinent to me at this moment.  

What subject matter will it be this summer? (Last summer, I wrote a series on Celtic Christian spirituality.) I’ve landed on a concept that, for some time, I’ve observed can be one of the biggest obstacles to our thinking well as Christians and maturing spiritually. It has to do with our understanding of “God’s control.” This concept, often referred to as ”divine sovereignty,” is the belief that God is in ultimate control of all things, including the events of our lives. I’ve noticed that when believers maintain a simplistic, even childish, and almost superstitious view of God, a view where God's hand is thought to maneuver every detail of life and every event that happens is God’s doing, they tend to remain stuck in their journey toward adulthood and often become dismayed when life doesn’t work out well for them.   

Not surprisingly, I saw this characteristic in myself. The question of God’s control first became relevant through an event that occurred more than twenty years ago and essentially blew up our lives. This event instigated our descent into the deep waters of doubt and disillusionment, prompting hard questions of God and seeking some form of resolution. We plunged into the core of our worldview and began to disassemble and discard dogma that no longer honestly and authentically engaged our life experience. I knew that for my spirituality to be genuine and resilient, it must be able to confront reality. It was this kind of faith I was in search of.  

One of the first precepts I had to engage with to continue in my faith was my understanding of God’s control (or sovereignty, if you prefer a more loaded word). “How is it that God could allow people who’d behaved badly to get their way?” I queried. “If God is in control, why did those of us who’d sought a more gentle and transparent path have to suffer so much loss?” That’s when life and faith collided, forcing me to reexamine what it means that “God is in control.”

And as fate has it, here I am—here we are—again! Current events have and are blowing up our collective lives. Since the re-election of Trump and the maelstrom of executive orders undermining democracy and defying our constitution, and most recently the passage of an appalling bill that will bring about untold harm while granting oppressive power to him and his administration, many of us are wondering how God could possibly be “in control.”    

Ironically, it’s this very quip that I’ve heard many times from MAGA people who seem to give wholesale support to the malevolent actions of this administration. They have often responded to me, in person or on social media, with the one-liner, “Well, all I can say is, God is in control!” Is God? Is God in control in the ways that I suspect these persons are envisioning God’s control? 

This jargon has once again become a source of provocation and alarm, as it is used to justify whatever happens. This experience has pressed me to think deeply about what it means AND what it doesn’t mean that God is in control. Over the next several weeks, I’d like to write some reflections on this topic, acknowledging that I’m a person-in-process! I am still seeking a genuine and resilient spirituality that engages with reality and doesn’t use God as a means to justify whatever happens. 

One of the sources for my musings (and one that has actually provoked more questions!) is a theologian and writer new to me, Thomas J. Oord. I’ve listened to some podcasts, read his book, God Can’t: How to Believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils, and am currently reading a sampler of his other writing available through his newsletter subscription on his website. I thought you might appreciate having some fodder for your own thinking on this crucial topic, which can either stymie your spiritual growth or catapult you into a wider, less simplistic, and less clichéd understanding of what it means—and doesn’t mean—that God is in control. Happy adventure! 

Warmly, Beth Booram

July 6, 2025