This weekend we had our post-wedding celebration with some of our family and inner circle of friends. As we were prepping the house and readying the decorations, we hit a snag with our vacuum cleaner. In the process, I said the phrase,“The problem with convenient cleaning machinery is that they still require attention and cleaning.” And it got me thinking, this is much like us.

“It’s not the work which kills people, it’s the worry. It’s not the revolution that destroys machinery, it’s the friction.”

Henry Ward Beecher

While we are arguably much more than convenient, we are in essence amazing machinery that if not properly maintained will break down and cease to work. We will get tied up in our circumstances and we will burn out. We will overflow with what we allow into our bodies, minds, hearts & souls whether it be good or bad.

Proverbs 4: 20-23

My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words.

Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart;

for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

We live in the uncertainty of neither being able to predict nor control the outcomes.

I often ask myself how my view of God is impacted when reality does not align with my expectations. It helps me to refocus my perspective on what is truly important. I have not always done a self-check. I learned how to do this within the last few years attending what is called Celebrate Recovery. I participated in an 8 month program called a step study; there was a group of 8-10 of us during this study. 

We worked through our life’s hurts and habits and broke down our choices and the choices of those around us. We broke down why we have our internal beliefs and our world views and how we came to have them. Whether we developed these in our families of origin or picked them up within our surroundings or from our life experiences. ( They come from a combination of all of these by the way)

“One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.”

Georg C. Lichtenberg

We were transparent during our meetings and shared our responses with one another, which is where community is so crucial. Because bringing all of this out to the light for God to heal, and then having a support system where you can process through all of it without feeling alone or unable to get through it is the largest aspect.

Psalm 55:22 

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you

God supports us as we release our problems to Him; we need not attempt to take charge of every situation or try to craft all the outcomes of the circumstances around us. I think many of us tend to forget that; especially in a season like we are in now when there is so much vast uncertainty and we are grasping for something we can comprehend.

“In reality, moral rules are directions for running the human machine. Every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown, or a strain, or a friction, in the running of that machine. That is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations.”

C. S. Lewis

I think the biggest challenge for us all is being able to look past our natural inclinations, to be willing to process them, and to decide if they are fitting for us or if we have outgrown them–or the potential that we should outgrow them and look to create a healthier self concept and improve our machineries ability to overcome the friction of change.

Are natural inclinations interfering with your ability to function the way you believe you should in order to thrive? And if so, what are you going to do about it?