About a month ago I wrote that I was going to try and share some of the things that God has been doing in my life recently, but obviously I still haven’t gotten around to it. Part of the reason is that it is still a work in progress and I feel like anything I might write would not be conclusive. But if that were a good reason for not writing, then I guess would never write.
I think the best way to sum up what has been going on with me is to refer to a very popular book that I read a few months ago, “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson. The book is a parable and therefore usually generates one of 2 reactions; one, that it is childish and simplistic, or second, that it is profound and extremely useful. I am definitely of the second opinion, as the parable seems to mirror the recent part of my life in many ways.
In the book several characters are living in the “maze” of life, enjoying the “cheese” that they have found or acquired, when one day they wake up and the cheese is gone. Each of them reacts differently to this crisis; one immediately takes off in search for new cheese, another waits for a while then goes, and one sadly never goes anywhere at all. But the one that I identify with the most is the hero of the story, named Haw.
Haw goes through a progression of thought that I think is typical of many people. At first when the cheese is gone, he sits around pretending that things aren’t so bad without the cheese, and hoping that it will return somehow. Then after a while he realizes that is not going to happen. He knows he is going to have to make some changes, but he is faced with indecision and fear. Indecision because of several seemingly equal passages into the maze, and fear of both the unknown and of failure.
That place in the story illustrates exactly where I have been for the past year or so. And although I was very aware that the cheese was gone and also very aware of the fear and indecision, I couldn’t seem to get myself out of that place. So like Haw in the story, I stayed there for quite a long time.
Thankfully, that is not the end of the story. But that is where I will stop for now. Part 2 to come soon..
