Refocusing

It was an easy job so I thought I would just go ahead and do it myself instead of bothering my son, asking him to do it.  All I had to do was to screw a couple of hooks behind the door to hang things on.  Simple!  I had the necessary electric tool ready and charged.  I marked the spot where I had to put the screw and made a small hole to make sure it didn't slip.  As I started screwing I discovered it wouldn't go in properly.  'I don't believe this!' I murmured under my breath.  I thought it was going to be so easy.  In the end I had to go and seek the help of my son.  He took one look and said 'You've got it on the wrong setting.  You've set it for drilling not for screwing.  No wonder it won't go in.'  Two minutes later it was done - by my son.  Please don't laugh, after all I am a woman and getting on in years.  Anyway, how was I to know that the thing had different settings?  I learnt something new that day!

Last week I had my yearly check-up at the optician's.  I knew my eyesight had deteriorated somewhat.  The clue was in the fact that I struggle to read the subtitles when the news is on the television and when I need to wait for the bus to be quite close before I can see which number it is and where it's going.  So the result was no surprise.  The young man was very kind and tried various lenses until I could read the letters on the screen clearly.  He was very helpful and explained the problem - the cataracts are obviously gradually getting worse but as yet it is possible to get lenses that will help.  So later today I go back to collect my new glasses.  What joy it will be to be able to make things out more clearly and at a greater distance once again, for a while at least. 
   
Another encounter I had was with someone who had visited a dietitian to get some help with losing a bit of excess weight.  She had always considered herself to be pretty healthy and always ate what she thought was a very healthy diet.  That is until the dietitian began explaining just where she had been going wrong and how the body reacts to different types of food.  She left the appointment quite humbled and said that after all these years of doing things a certain way she was now going to have to rethink and refocus her attention on other elements of her diet that until now she had considered ok.

All in all, it has been a week of refocusing and rethinking, learning and readjusting.  Things change and we have to change with the situation at hand.  We cannot always go on doing things in the same old way just because 'we've always done it that way' as I was once informed as a questioning child.  It has been said that the Nautilus begins life in a small shell but as it grows it doesn't have enough room and so it builds another bit of shell, another new compartment and moves out of the old, once comfortable place into the new part until it becomes too big for that part.  And so it goes on until it becomes quite large.  The different segments can be clearly seen around the shell of the Nautilus.  What a lesson - we need to keep learning and growing but also often this entails moving on from where we were.  We can't always remain static or we either stunt our growth or die.  We need regular check-ups and then refocus and move on, adjusting to the new situation in hand. 

I am not in the same place spiritually as I was a few years ago.  I have learnt more and moved on.  It's not about turning our backs on the past.  The nautilus carries its past around with it.  Our past is a reminder of where we've come from and what has made us the people we now are.  We look at our past but shouldn't live in it.  It was right for us at that time and in that situation so we need to be thankful for the past and how it has led us to the point where we are today.  It should be a progression on to something new and better.  In our spiritual lives, if we find ourselves in a situation where nothing has changed, then maybe we need to ask ourselves if we need a check-up, learn something new, refocus or do things differently.  If not, then there could be a danger that we might be just going through the motions while we are actually dying on the inside.  We are never too old to learn something new, no matter how long we may have been a Christian.  It is good to re-examine what we do - maybe what we thought was ok, no longer serves us well.   God is much bigger than any human understanding and the nature of his creation is to keep evolving and moving.