Control

I ran across this incredibly encouraging thought from John Zahl and thought it was too good not to share with you all as well.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest upon me.
(2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV)

You want to be in control, but you are not. Because of this, the heart-felt experience of faith will always entail a kind of personal deconstruction, rather than some kind of building up. The more you get to know the God who loves sinners, the more you will see your own need for Him.
Sometimes people ask God to build in them all the things that they think they need in order to face life successfully. He will do no such thing! Why would He turn you into a vessel that has no need for Him? Faith means trusting Him to be all the things you need Him to be, despite your own inadequacies, and, for that matter, in light of the fact that you don't actually know what you need or what success actually looks like. He won't give you strength; He will be your strength. God deconstructs. God intervenes. God prevents.