Today was the day! I could not postpone this any further. The food-mixer had been lying in wait, un-operational for months. Having tried in vain to ignore my wife’s nagging, I finally sat down to have a look at the invalid. Surprisingly, I was not sorry for having come round to doing this task since it had in store for me a few significant lessons.
Lesson 1: problems rarely go away by themselves simply by ignoring them. In order to get them out of the way you have to face them squarely in the face. Acknowledge that they are real, sort of.
I did my very best to try any solve the problem with minimal effort, switching on and off again, pressing here and there, turning round this way and the other. All to no avail, unfortunately - or was it good fortune - now that I think of it? All that I succeeded in achieving was to confirm the symptoms, but the cause of the problem remained a mystery. At best, I could only imagine what was wrong, not at all certain that, in fact, I was correct in my judgement.
Lesson 2: From the outside we can only look at the symptoms of our problems. For instance, I am feeling depressed, I was angry with my wife, I have a grudge against my boss, and so on. But the cause of the problem will remain a mystery as long as I am content to look at it from the outside, superficially. In order to get to the real problem, the root of what is causing the ”mal-function” – resentment, anger, feeling-down, whatever, I have to drill down deep within myself.
The task looked a bit daunting. I couldn’t make up my mind where to begin when faced with a variety of nuts and screws. I was strongly tempted to give up. This job is beyond me. I cannot do it.
Lesson 3: The subtle temptation of discouragement. When I look at myself honestly it is very easy for me to feel discouraged. “What’s the use?” “I’ll never get anywhere with this”. So, the solution would be to do nothing.
I convinced myself to roll up my sleeves and start working, comforted by the thought that I could always rely upon help that is continually being offered to me. If I get stuck I knew that there would be someone to help me out.
Lesson 4: You are not alone. Even though the journey within yourself looks frightening, you can always rely upon the help of someone who is both willing and competent to see you through the task.
Once I got down to it, I soon realised that things were actually not as hard as I had imagined them to be. The more I uncovered the layers of covering panels and mechanisms, it appeared clearer that I was homing in closer to the root of the problem.
Lesson 5: This journey inside your real self can be likened to going down a stairway. You go one step at a time, and with each step you take, you realise that the demons hiding in dark nooks and crevices are not so frightening. Looking back on the path you have traveled, you’d be amazed on the progress you have made.
Life’s problems are similar to this situation. I like using a gardening parallel to explain this point. If you have thistles growing in your flowerbed, it’s no use trimming them out with scissors. What appears above the soil is not the real “problem”, it is only the result of what lies beneath. In order to get rid of that “problem”, or at least, to get to grips with it, you have to dig a little deeper in the soil in order to arrive at the roots. Then you can pull out the cause of the “problem”.
The morale of this little adventure with my food-mixer is: NEVER accept your sins at face value. Dig deeper, do not be afraid, you are not alone. Trust in Jesus Christ who will accompany you on this journey. What caused your anger? What prompts you to indulge in pornography? Why can’t you stand that colleague at work? Why can’t you accept to be corrected? Why are you resentful? Why are you feeling depressed? Why are you afraid to speak your mind?
The key to healing is to become aware of what the real problem is. “To see” as the blind man on the road to Jericho asked of Jesus. To have my sight restored. To see clearly what my real sin is, what the root of my ailment is. Once you have this light shed upon your real self, you have started on the road to freedom – “The Truth will set you free” Jesus assures us.
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