Sometimes I get stuck in a heady rut. Nay, a lot of times I get stuck in a heady rut. And when I do, it’s a hard pit to come out of, particularly because my chosen method is based on my own mental strength—ha, that’s funny—and not the patient, righteous intervention of my Savior.
Here are my thoughts when I’m bogged in my head. I’ll read some kind of Christian self-help-ish book so I can focus on what I’m doing wrong and get 12 handy tips for success. I might “pray” for a while—which really means I just sit and think through the problem on an endless loop. Or there’s always the option of letting my eyes blankly roll over a page of the Bible while my mind keeps spinning. What I often forget to do, though, is to look for God in the ordinary things of life.
How many times must I re-learn what I preach so often? God uses stories to touch the hearts of men.
The other day, I found myself getting stuck in another heady rut. With a bit of spare time to burn toward the end of the day, I really wanted to read more of the novel I’ve been working on, The Art of Racing in the Rain, but thought that doing something “spiritual” (i.e., self-focused and self-righteous) would be better to get me out of my rut.
I struggled with the decision for a bit but finally gave in and picked up the book, believing if only for a moment that, yes, maybe the God of all creation didn’t need me to focus on my torrent of thought any longer. I flipped to the page I’d left off on.
Surprised though I was, the short, 4-page chapter gave me chills.
The canine narrator witnesses his master, shaky-handed, nearly spiral into a drunken self-destruction, at a time when he and his daughter would need all the steel and perseverance he could muster. The author does a great job of playing off a stereotypical situation and cliche turns of phrase to create a turning point for these characters that is anything but.
Frankly, it was what I needed to see that night: not another cranial attempt to dig myself out of a hole, but an imaginative embodiment of hope, determination, and faithfulness. My imagination had to be turned to something else.
No matter how many times I think it or say it, it always surprises me: God designed us in such a way that stories disarm, surprise, confront, and change us in a way that so many other things can’t.
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It is amazing what things God uses to help us. Blessings,
Eden