A few years ago, this video, “It’s Not About the Nail,” surfaced on YouTube. I find it amusing.
It depicts a supposed difference between men and women: that women like to (or need to) just talk about problems and issues (like going on about a nail stuck in your forehead), while men just want to “fix” it.
But this morning, I realized that it summarizes another, non-gender relationship; the one between God (the Creator) and humans (the Created).
(And I also recognize another symbolism in a nail being the physical object.)
In other words, we like to complain, to moan, and cry “woe is me, but why,” all while our Savior is just trying to get our attention with His offer to figuratively remove that which troubles us – or, at least, to make it … peaceably bearable.
In my morning prayer, I was reminded of this ‘nail’ vid. I was asking God’s blessing on the changes coming in my life, on selling our house and moving, and on, to quote, “my impending kidney transplant.”
I circled that word, ‘impending’ in red. It’s supposed to mean simply “be about to happen.” But these days doesn’t it have a negative sense? So why did I select it?
(And this is not to say receiving a life-sustaining organ is a bad thing, but I am facing a fear, an apprehension, about the surgery itself (I’ve had too many already!), but also about the change to ‘comfortable’ circumstances – of what currently is my comfort zone. I’ve been on dialysis and disability for three and a half years.)
Back to my point. I wrote “impending,” but then stopped to consider what word would express a positive frame of mind.
The one I chose was “anticipated.”
Of course, I checked out the definitions of both words. I want to note here just a phrase for each:
- impend – (of something bad) loom
- anticipate – look forward to
It occurred to me that these represent the two fundamental outlooks we can have toward life (and “not life”).
We can anticipate: life after this life, Heaven, eternity, everything; or
we can dread our impending death, whereupon there will be nothing.
All our beliefs spring from these. Hope or fear. A creator or randomness. Living or existing. Meaningful or meaningless.
Can we decide which point of view we will hold? Does hopefulness require a “spiritual experience,” or can it grow out of plain knowledge, from “blind faith?”
Step 12 (“Service”) says,”Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others…”
However, I know that my attitude changed on July 25, 2008, when I had a literal encounter with Christ in a rock-bottom moment, and this was the impetus for my journey into healing and transformation. Working my way through the step has grown into “carrying the message.”
How about you? From where does your faith or non-faith come?
The photo above captioned “looming” was from the Colorado Hayman fire. Today, I ask you to please pray for the victims of the Northern California fires. So many are missing or have perished.
I loved this post. Well said. Fear is a kind of faith, it is just putting our faith in the negative,in all the things that can go wrong, in the worst that can possibly happen. A better word for “faith” might be “trust,” and knowing that perfect love casts out fear.
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