OH! So that's what that's for.
Working from home has it’s interesting rituals that you won’t find in any corporate office. One of my more daily rituals occurs when my soon to be two-year-old will bring some toy, book or thing that she has discovered and place it in my lap. I then take the toy, book or thing and place it on my desk. By the end of the week, I’ll often have a nice stash.
One of the side games that often follows this ritual is “Name that Thing.” The toys are easy to recognize and place back in their proper storage containers, but then there are those pieces, parts and bits. Those things that have come apart or she has torn apart and brought me only a piece. Those things that you look at and say, “What is this and where did you find it?”
She never answers that question, and your job as the parent is to search it out and discover the answer yourself. Sometimes it can be instantly recognized, but sometimes you only discover the answer when you go to use your remote control, electric razor or some other gadget to discover a piece missing has made it inoperable. At that moment the revelation strikes. “Oh! So that’s what that’s for!”
The most difficult part of the “Name that Thing” game is deciding which thing is trash, and which thing isn’t. More than once, because I couldn’t “Name that Thing” I trashed a part I shouldn’t have. The result left a crippled gadget or toy, and the thought, “Oh, so that’s what that was for.”
Many times in our hectic lives we are called to make snap decisions. Priorities are shifted and schedules rearranged by events throughout our day. We often end the day miles short of our expected accomplishments. Things we planned to do were dropped from our schedule for the “urgent” and “immediate” things that arrived throughout the day. The prayer time and bible study still on our to-do list is pushed to the next day, and we hit our beds with the expectation that tomorrow we’ll do better.
Only the next day we find it more hectic. Tomorrow is even busier, and we can’t hear God through the noise of daily life. It is in those times when we can’t find peace, our emotions are raw, and we are more than short tempered, that we look back at our prayer times and say, “Oh. So that’s what that’s for.”
One of the side games that often follows this ritual is “Name that Thing.” The toys are easy to recognize and place back in their proper storage containers, but then there are those pieces, parts and bits. Those things that have come apart or she has torn apart and brought me only a piece. Those things that you look at and say, “What is this and where did you find it?”
She never answers that question, and your job as the parent is to search it out and discover the answer yourself. Sometimes it can be instantly recognized, but sometimes you only discover the answer when you go to use your remote control, electric razor or some other gadget to discover a piece missing has made it inoperable. At that moment the revelation strikes. “Oh! So that’s what that’s for!”
The most difficult part of the “Name that Thing” game is deciding which thing is trash, and which thing isn’t. More than once, because I couldn’t “Name that Thing” I trashed a part I shouldn’t have. The result left a crippled gadget or toy, and the thought, “Oh, so that’s what that was for.”
Many times in our hectic lives we are called to make snap decisions. Priorities are shifted and schedules rearranged by events throughout our day. We often end the day miles short of our expected accomplishments. Things we planned to do were dropped from our schedule for the “urgent” and “immediate” things that arrived throughout the day. The prayer time and bible study still on our to-do list is pushed to the next day, and we hit our beds with the expectation that tomorrow we’ll do better.
Only the next day we find it more hectic. Tomorrow is even busier, and we can’t hear God through the noise of daily life. It is in those times when we can’t find peace, our emotions are raw, and we are more than short tempered, that we look back at our prayer times and say, “Oh. So that’s what that’s for.”
2 Comments:
Oh yes... Like unexplained problems or difficulties. We find out later that those unidentified and unwanted issues make the whole thing (our lives) work the way God planned.
JR
By J.R. Allebach, at Monday, September 26, 2005
Good point J.R. There are many times that I have looked over the landscape of my life and seen the pieces of the puzzle that at the time I encountered them, I simply dismissed. God then went in behind me, picked up the piece, dusted it off and fit it perfectly into the panaramic scene that I now look back and see as beautiful.
By Kenneth Swett, at Wednesday, October 05, 2005
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