5-5-02, Sunday Journal
TOTIN' OUT THE GARBAGE
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features
In
1988 when I was procrastinating over a necessary but unpleasant task, I stumbled
onto a great truth of some kind that solved the problem for me. I say
"truth of some kind" because I'm not sure if it's a spiritual truth or
merely a mental trick that works. But whatever works and helps us live better
is, in reality, some part spiritual.
It was not will power. There may have been a few times in my life when I could
just make myself do something unpleasant, but that's not the great truth I
discovered on this date in 1988.
Neither was reward the trick. There have certainly been those times when I have
agreed with myself to reward me for doing something I didn't want to do. Like
saying, "If you get your income tax filed today, I will take you to Baskin
Robbins for a banana split." But most of the time when I really have a
mental block against doing something, no reward seems good enough for me to
shake myself and go face the Philistines.
Neither was punishment an answer. Telling myself I am going to fast until I do
something unpleasant has never worked one time. Nor spanking myself. Nor
piercing myself with sharp stones and throwing sand in the air. Neither did
parental threats in my childhood work very often with me.
So what was it that saved me back in ‘88, that enabled me to get up off the
stool of do-thing and do what I desperately dreaded? I hate to tell you because
simple things are never viewed by us as answers. We want something complicated
we have to type up and memorize.
Well, this simple truth has helped me break these log jams better than anything.
And its to do it as casually as you would carry out the garbage.
Nobody I know loves to carry out the garbage. But we do it. Why is it always
something we do? Because we don't make a big deal out of it.
When you faced an unpleasant task, just see it as a garbage sack to tote to the
curb. Get up and do it. Don't give it time to make itself a big deal in your
mind.
BETWEEN THE SHOULDERS
The writer of Deuteronomy had certainly seen a mother swan transport her babies.
The baby swans climb upon her back and ride between her shoulders. It's one of
the cutest sights I have ever seen and I am a close observer of nature.
So he wrote, "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the
Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between His
shoulders."
We are basically helpless in so many ways. No matter how strong we may be in one
area of our lives, we have other areas where we are dumb as a two-by-four.
We need to ask for more free rides on God's back. When we hit one of our dumb
two-by-four spots, the most important thing we can do is to say, "I am
ignorant here." Brother Dave Gardner used to talk about our need for
"schools of ignorance," where we could go to learn that all of us have
our ignorant places.
If our natural child confessed, "I don't know how to do this," we
would be glad to help them through it. Is our Divine Parent any different? Is
God less caring than a mother Swan?
No, they both specialize in free rides. Just admitting our ignorance is one of
the most powerful acts we will ever do. And asking for help.
Climb aboard!
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