Thresholds Part II
On the last note I touched on thresholds. I related how wisdom teachers talk about taking time, as you enter a new room or new season, to pause to get your bearings on where you are and why you are there.
Some of us have barreled through doors in our past and found ourselves not quite where we wanted to be. For years I did that, to the dismay of myself, my family and a few strangers. Perhaps it was due to a busy head. Back in the day I felt like my thoughts were in a gerbil wheel, constantly in motion and not always going anywhere productive and so, I pushed in to rooms without checking before entering. In part, I was not able to accurately read the signs or understand the symbolism of them. That caused me a lot of internal angst. And, yes you may laugh as I tell you where I got the most hung up…restroom signage.
I know, I know, how hard can that be?? While I can’t remember exactly how old I was when this problem started, I can recall though, the affront I felt when a man walked out of a stall in a restaurant’s ‘Ladies Room’. Outrage! ‘What are you doing here?’ said my facial expression as I glared at the man. Then, as I took in my surroundings and saw a row of urinals, a dawning horror, I got it wrong. I turned and fled.
Perhaps I should have had trauma therapy after that first event, as I was rather shaken. But, I did not and the problem remained for enough years to be an ongoing dismay for my kids when we were out together. They watched with a sense of wry humour, ‘would she get it right this time out?’ Likely ducking their heads when I came scurrying out of one door to enter the correct one hoping that no one knew we were together.
If I were to do a postmortem on that struggle in the past and yes, it is by grace in the past, I would say there were a few contributors. A busy brain burdened by demands and a sense of urgency; a complacency that believed I was in full understanding of what I perceived; and lastly, anxiety when encountering the unfamiliar.
And all tied to ‘restrooms’. Those places that are necessary to our well being, a place to do our business and then clean up afterward. To get ready for a road trip, knowing we won’t be able to stop for a while. To take a look in the mirror and reflect on the effect a trip, however long or short, has taken on us. To refresh ourselves, tidy ourselves up before rejoining friends and family at dinner or drinks in a local place.
I find it very interesting coming into the second year of a global pandemic, that even restrooms are impacted. Nearly all have limited seating and sinks and many are flat out closed for reasons too numerous to state but impacting none the less.
So much of what has been familiar and available is now limited. What we took for granted is fraught with unknowns and sudden change. To be frank, I don’t think even the sagest of prophetic voices knows for how long or what it will look like once things are restored.
Certainly, this past year has shaken many of us and has left us in unrest and potential turmoil. I believe that we make some of our best decisions from of a place of rest and so then, how to get there.
We have to quiet our busy minds, take time to abide in Him and find that place of rest.
We have to pause a bit, before entering into what we have done in familiar ways, in order to be sure we are in the right place.
We have to calm ourselves when we can’t understand the signs. So much is unfamiliar and changing, it is prudent to slow down and bit, let what we are perceiving align with reality.
All of us are walking into this new threshold and I have every hope, that at the end of it all, it will be good. All of the time, He is good.
