I caught myself this week! All this talk about worry, fear, and anxiety this month . . . I should’ve seen it coming. I should have detected the signs . . . An upcoming deadline, and approaching meeting that I feared was going to have a bad outcome, friends having a disagreement, and a list of To-Do’s a mile long. I had developed a knot in my stomach and my shoulders felt a bit heavy; physical conditions that had it written all over them. And, my patience was wearing thin; I admit it, I was a tad bit crabby. It is all so clear now as I look back over the course of the last week; I was becoming consumed by worry and fear of not getting everything done, wanting to fix my friend’s relationship, and hoping for a certain outcome from the meeting.
Then, I got lucky and received “my brick”. I refer to it as “my brick” ever since this story was shared with me many years ago.
An executive was driving down a neighborhood street in his new expensive car. He was in a hurry talking on his cell phone. Suddenly, he saw children playing on the side of the road. He muttered something about “stupid kids” to himself as he slowed down.
Then, he heard a thud. Something had hit the side of his car. He slammed on brakes and jumped out of the car. He saw a dent in the car door and a brick lying on the street. The man turned toward the kids and shouted, “Who threw that brick?” Fixing that dent is going to be expensive!” He was furious.
A child, a young boy stepped forward. The child was shaking and he was crying. “I threw the brick. I needed you to stop. No one would stop to help me. My little bother rolled off the sidewalk and fell out of his wheel chair. He is hurt and I can’t lift him up. I need some help. Will you help me?”
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat; he bent over, picked up the child, helped him back in the wheel chair, and wiped off his cuts and scrapes. As he watched the older boy push his brother down the sidewalk, the man slouched back towards his car. He looked at the dent – and made a promised to himself that he would leave that dent in the car as long as he owned it. The dent would remind him to slow down and not be consumed by all the demands of his life, to be on the lookout– and to listen - to listen to the voice of God. The man thought, sometimes God whispers to our souls, whispers to our hearts. But He sometimes needs to use a brick to get our attention.
This week “My brick” hit me in the form of my kids. They were discussing something that had happened that day at school. Middle school kid stuff that I remember was so very hard to process at that age. At that exact moment “my brick” struck me. . . My kids were struggling with this and I had to help them makes some sort of sense of it.
I quickly pulled something from my mental file cabinet that I remembered from the best-selling book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson. I asked the kids if this situation would be just as important a week from now, a month from now, or a year from now. As they were both chewing on what it was I just said . . . I caught a glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror and something told me that I hadn’t just said what I said just for my kids’ benefit. I took those words to heart myself and realized that I had gotten caught up in the worry of things that were either out of my control, or may possibly never happen. Not so surprisingly I noticed the pit in my stomach was gone and the weight was lifted off my shoulders a short time later.
Pay attention, listen, and watch out for flying bricks.
Jenny
Sister of Soul
Soulspiration of the Week:
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. ~ E. Joseph Cossman
Then, I got lucky and received “my brick”. I refer to it as “my brick” ever since this story was shared with me many years ago.
An executive was driving down a neighborhood street in his new expensive car. He was in a hurry talking on his cell phone. Suddenly, he saw children playing on the side of the road. He muttered something about “stupid kids” to himself as he slowed down.
Then, he heard a thud. Something had hit the side of his car. He slammed on brakes and jumped out of the car. He saw a dent in the car door and a brick lying on the street. The man turned toward the kids and shouted, “Who threw that brick?” Fixing that dent is going to be expensive!” He was furious.
A child, a young boy stepped forward. The child was shaking and he was crying. “I threw the brick. I needed you to stop. No one would stop to help me. My little bother rolled off the sidewalk and fell out of his wheel chair. He is hurt and I can’t lift him up. I need some help. Will you help me?”
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat; he bent over, picked up the child, helped him back in the wheel chair, and wiped off his cuts and scrapes. As he watched the older boy push his brother down the sidewalk, the man slouched back towards his car. He looked at the dent – and made a promised to himself that he would leave that dent in the car as long as he owned it. The dent would remind him to slow down and not be consumed by all the demands of his life, to be on the lookout– and to listen - to listen to the voice of God. The man thought, sometimes God whispers to our souls, whispers to our hearts. But He sometimes needs to use a brick to get our attention.
This week “My brick” hit me in the form of my kids. They were discussing something that had happened that day at school. Middle school kid stuff that I remember was so very hard to process at that age. At that exact moment “my brick” struck me. . . My kids were struggling with this and I had to help them makes some sort of sense of it.
I quickly pulled something from my mental file cabinet that I remembered from the best-selling book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson. I asked the kids if this situation would be just as important a week from now, a month from now, or a year from now. As they were both chewing on what it was I just said . . . I caught a glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror and something told me that I hadn’t just said what I said just for my kids’ benefit. I took those words to heart myself and realized that I had gotten caught up in the worry of things that were either out of my control, or may possibly never happen. Not so surprisingly I noticed the pit in my stomach was gone and the weight was lifted off my shoulders a short time later.
Pay attention, listen, and watch out for flying bricks.
Jenny
Sister of Soul
Soulspiration of the Week:
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. ~ E. Joseph Cossman
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