Under New Management

I used to work at a hotel on The Strip, well, just off The Strip.  It was a long time ago. It wasn't a very good hotel.  I think its nickname was "hooker central" or something along those lines.  If it wasn't, it should have been.  I saw my fair share of prostitution, drug deals, criminals, pimps, and police officers (not to mention a dead body, oh and a pimp threatened to kill me once). In my short time at that fine establishment we changed management companies: twice.  Both times we hung out a banner that said "Under New Management" and both times, nothing changed.  It was the same hotel with the same philosophy and the same way of doing things and the same clientele.
As Christians, when we surrender our lives to Jesus, when we turn to Jesus, in effect we come under new management.  We are no longer in charge of our lives, we give that management to God.  We ask God to take over and help us figure out how to live every day with a new perspective on life, a new perspective on the world, a new perspective on ourselves, and a new perspective on eternity.  It begins when we ask, but for some of us, it takes a long time to actually implement.
See, we are all raised in a culture that says "I am in control of my own life."  The American dream is the self made man, the man who works hard and takes control of his life and becomes a success; all on his own with his own smarts and a little bit of luck.  Giving control of our lives to Jesus is counter cultural.  It might even be a little subversive.  It is also the only way to live.
Just like the hotel, I can hang out a banner that says "I'm under new management, Jesus is in control of my life" and then have nothing change.  I can talk the talk and then keep doing my own thing and running my own life.  Jesus won't go where he isn't wanted.  He respects our choices.  However, if I am serious, if I really do want to be under new management, then slowly my life becomes a process of learning how to let go and of how to let God be in control.  This isn't an easy thing.  It isn't a quick thing either.  It takes a lifetime.  There are days when it is one step forward and three steps backwards. But with God in control, those days slowly becomes fewer and fewer.  Slowly it becomes two steps forward, one step back...then three steps forward...and one day you realize you are walking in the Spirit.  Again, it isn't perfection, nobody will ever be perfect, but it is so much better than the alternative.
And the best part is, one day, all those steps will lead you home.