A few Sundays ago, as I entered the sanctuary of the church and moved to my usual seat on the end of the pew on the 8th row on the left side, I noticed that there were some people sitting there. While many people are upset by someone having the nerve to sit in their place, I received a bit of pleasure from the experience because it indicates that we have some new people visiting, and that is a good thing.
Before sitting in that spot, it was my usual practice to sit in a different place each Sunday. Doing this gave me the opportunity to get to know different people, since it is customary to exchange pleasantries with those sitting close to you. I guess some of my ideas mark me as a “weird duck”, but it seems to me that of all places that we spend time, that church is the place to get to know other members.
Some people seem to feel that they “own” that seat and it is almost like in college when we attended lyceum and had to sit in our designated space so someone that did not know you from Adam, could take attendance from a distance. As strange as it sounds, there are people that are upset if they don’t get their seat. As bad as it sounds, it is my belief that some of these would have a difficult choice if they had to decide between giving up their seat and going to hell.
This reminds me of a story. Once upon a time, a cowboy was in charge of a small herd of horses. He came home in a panic, calling wildly to his wife to come immediately because he could not account for all of the horses. Seems that he had been put in charge of 12 horses, but could only account for 11 of them. He was in the midst of a meltdown because the horses were prized so highly and he wanted to move up into a more responsible position on the ranch. He was sweating, he was experiencing heart palpitations, and he was near the point of hysteria. What could he do to resolve the problem?
He was so involved in the problem that he was at wits end as to what to do next. Tell his boss that one of the prized horses had escaped, spend the rest of the day looking for the animal, or risk the embarrassment and tell others so they could help him look for it?
Now picture this if you will. As he turned to go back over his tracks in an effort to locate the missing animal, all the cowboy’s wife could see was the rear ends of all of the horses as they started to walk away from her. She called out in a loud voice, you must be mistaken, because from here I can see 13 horses’ rear ends, horses’ patooties if you will, and jack-asses if you must.
Now as you try to get the point of the story, let me analyze how the story is relevant in our lives. He was so close to the problem that he could not even count the animal that he was on. We often find that we are so close to the problem in life that we do not see the solution right under our nose. We often find that when the solution does not jump up and slap us in the face, we panic. We often find that we overlook the obvious when we seek solutions. We often find that the simplest solution is overlooked in favor of a complicated solution.
Then we are amazed at how someone unfamiliar with the problem comes up with a solution so quickly and efficiently. We are left wondering about it when the solution is to look at the problem from a different perspective. If we look at the situation we find that we are often equipped with everything necessary to solve our own problems, even complicated problems if we take the time to realize that our own genius is so amazing and efficient.
The choice is yours, take the time to look at and analyze your problem(s), and then make an effort to solve them. Either use your God given talent to solve your problems, seek competent help if it is called for, or allow yourself to look like the horse moving away from the observer.
Let me tell you, I have plenty of experience looking like the buffoon on the horse galloping away in full view of everybody close enough to see me with a telescope. This is not the time to follow that example. The choice is yours – choose wisely my friends, choose wisely!