That One Little Thing

Last week at a prayer time with John and Missy, we talked about struggling in our walk with the Lord, struggling with people, struggling with work—you name it, we struggled with it.

As we talked, I diligently worked on untangling a lump of necklace. I kept breaking off the end of what appeared to be a hair. I didn’t think that one little thing was much of a problem, though, so I kept taking parts of the necklace over and under, under and over, over and back under. My frustration was on the rise, and my blood pressure along with it.

Finally Missy couldn’t stand it any longer and thrust out her hand. I recognized the cue to “hand it over”, and gladly dropped it into her hand with a look that said, “OK, if you think you can do better, have at it!”

Of course, like the proverbial “I loosened it for you” jar lid, she had the problem identified within seconds:  that one little strand of hair did, in fact, have the whole necklace tangled up in one big knot. She needed a knife and didn’t have one, so she called to John for help.

“Scalpel.”

John pulled out his mandatory-that-every-guy-have-one pocket knife, and under my close scrutiny, he carefully made his cut. Immediately the big knot disappeared and the wad of chain and beads was transformed back into a necklace. It was a beautiful moment.

As she handed it back to me, her face lit up with a revelation.

“Oh my, do you see the parallels in what we just discussed?”

We did!

I became frustrated because I could not fix the necklace—I was struggling with it. The necklace was tangled up by one little hair that didn’t seem big enough to be a problem.  From a different perspective, Missy easily realized the hair was the problem, and also that she needed help to fix it.  If I argued with Missy about whether or not a single hair could be the problem, or refused to trust John to cut said hair and not my necklace, I remained frustrated with a tangled wad of chain and beads in my hand.

At the root of our struggles could be that one little thing we just can’t believe could be a problem.  It keeps coming to our mind, but we keep shrugging it off because it’s such a little thing. Instead we keep asking ourselves and others, “What’s wrong with me? Why am I struggling so much?” When someone responds that the one little thing could be a problem, we roll our eyes, shake our heads, and ignore them (even though most of the time, we know deep down inside they’re probably right!) 

How easily the necklace was fixed when I gave up my struggle and accepted help!

Yes, it can be just that easy for us too…when we’re willing.

Today's Challenge:  What one little thing came to mind when you read this?  Are you willing to deal with it honestly and accept help where needed?