No. 13 | I awoke this morning thinking about ostriches. Do they really bury their heads in the sand when confronted with some other threatening, hungry beast that wishes to have them for supper? A quick web search says that they do not. You can read some about it if you are curious like me.
I have a good friend and co-worker who has on occasion said, “Some people are content to sit in their own filth.” I am sure he has phrased this a few different ways. He paints a picture worth considering.
Just the other day I listened to a story told by a holiday fisherman. This fellow and his family had traveled down to the coast and gone out on a charter fishing boat. Upon their return with coolers full of fish, a crew at the dock cleaned and fileted all the fish for them. The teller of the story described the sights and smells of the dock as something unpleasant to the sight and olfactory senses.
The storyteller asks the young man cleaning and prepping his fish, “Do you ever get tired of the smells around here?” The young man looks back and asks, “What smells?”
Now to be clear, this young man was working hard doing a legitimate job with real value. This young man may have had his eyes set on being a future boat captain. He may have had his eyes set on being captain of a hundred boats. I hope so and wish him only and all of the very best.
But that picture, “What smell?” Surely each of us at some time and in some way has “sat in our own filth”. Problems are hard enough to face and overcome when we see them. They can be downright disheartening and leave us feeling that we are absolutely powerless. We are not though, powerless.
If that is the story with the problems that we see, the problems that to us go unseen are a whole other matter. We may see them because we may not see them. We may see them and falsely and to our own detriment convince ourselves they are not so looming or important in the end. We may see them and simply choose the easiest path of all, the fabled ostrich path. The river in Egypt path.
Over the years, I have had good friends, concerned co-workers, caring family members, and loved ones bring to my attention some of my own problems that I either was not taking seriously enough or altogether did not see. Where would I be had these not risked telling me the truth that I either did not see or was not taking seriously enough? I am sure there are many more that are yet to come to light. It is a hard thing to tell someone you deeply care about a truth that stings. It can be a very hard thing to hear it. We need each other that way. We need to love each other and hold each other up in the midst of the difficult things we must face. We need to encourage one another that things can get better.