It's like killing two birds with one stone. . .except it's two life lessons from one illustration.
multi-tasking illustration! Maybe that sounds a little confusing but it will make sense in a moment. . . bear with me.
I will return to this incredible Siamese illustration after I digress over life's happenings.
I made a slight dent in one of my goals this past weekend by pricing ukuleles online. . . needless to say I will have to get a cheap-y version or seriously budget myself if this is ever going to happen.
Also, I have begun to face my fears and have a good attitude about Statistics of the Social Science. . . it's been 4 years since my last math course and this is a Junior level class. My only issue at the moment is trying to complete this first assignment with an awful head cold.
This pounding, aching, pressurized plague has become the thorn in my side in the last twenty-four hours. This should be a fun 5 hour drive home and a wedding to be somewhat conscious for on Saturday morning. God forgive the evil germs. . . at least my post-wedding blog about the positives about singleness should be interesting.
I suppose I should explain my proverbial "stone"
Put your hands out in front of you. (trust me, it makes it more real) Make one into a tight fist and leave the other completely open.
It's called the closed fist\open fist issue.
Life lesson #1
This first life lesson was shared with me over a hurried cup of coffee with a scattered brained and extremely wise young mother from my church. She began to talk to me about the things we dream of in someone verses the things are really important. She held her hands out and said that there are things like faith and character we should hold tightly to as standards that we don't sway on but there are other things that don't really matter. We should leave those things for God to decide for us. . .sometimes there are things we receive in someone that we don't even know we need.
This what I learned from her that day: Hold onto my dreams loosely but hang to hang onto my standards for dear life. Often people do the very opposite and end up with less than what they excepted or worse.
Life Lesson #2
It was just last night that I heard this same illustration presented in a different light than this past summer. And, for the purposes of this "life experiment" I am doing, it hit me a little deeper and made me think of every situation in a different way. It was during a service when the speaker, Dr. Joann Lyon shared the illustration of the closed\open fists. She shared the following: we can either go through life with a "closed fist" mentality, thinking that we can just tough it out and just "get through it" with situations that challenge us. This may protect us but it closes us off to the movement of God and growth. Or, we can go through life with an "open fist" and tell our God that we look forward to what He is going to do with any situation. If we look at things this way, we will have hope. . . we will have joy knowing that God will have freedom to create something beautiful with anything we go through.
This is what I learned from lesson #2: I can look at this experiment and anything else for that matter and just try to solider on through it, living under the illusion that I can tough it out. On the other hand, I can live my whole life with an "open fist" . No matter what happens I can look forward to what God is going to do. Essentially, living a life of faith. Trusting with God and living with hope no matter how discouraging, frustrating, negative, pointless, confusing an moment of my life may seem.
Living with an open fist to me, means living free. It means living in hope. . .
Whether it's statistics class or indefinite singleness I want to live that way. . . with an open fist. . .
Ta-da! you have now witness the great miracle of the multitasking illustration. . . applause? anyone?
No comments:
Post a Comment