It seems that Jessica’s personality develops a little more every day. At almost two-and-a-half, she’s delightful, funny, and creative. She often thinks up new things to do and new games to play that I never would have thought of, partly because I’m…well…a lot older than two. She’s also gotten to the stage where she gets bored sitting in her car seat for very long. Combine these two factors, and you get some interesting games.
For example, the other day, my husband was taking the kids somewhere in the minivan so I could work on my contracted book. The way he describes it, it was a run-of-the-mill trip until Jessica cried out, “Daddy, I can’t see! I can’t see!”
He said her voice didn’t seem panicked, but he immediately glanced back at her anyway. And when he did, the cause of her “blindness” became obvious. She was covering her eyes with her hands.
“Silly girl,” he responded, and she grinned and uncovered her eyes.
Apparently, she loves this game, because she played it several more times during that trip and has played it many times since. She loves “fooling” us into thinking there’s a problem when there really isn’t.
Because she’s only two, the game is cute. But it isn’t so cute in the adult version, which we sometimes play.
We may not cover our eyes with our hands and pretend we’re blind. But, like Jessica, we sometimes cause our own problems and then complain about them. Instead of recognizing the part we’ve played in our circumstances and doing what we can to rectify it, we wait for God—or at least another human being—to rescue us.
Sometimes, it’s not a matter of creating our own mess, but of sustaining it beyond the point where it would have resolved naturally. When bad things happen to us, many of us feel more comfortable with continuing to receive sympathy than with moving on. But staying stuck isn’t going to bring us the emotional fulfillment we need.
Granted, there are situations in life that are hard—really hard—to move on from. There are times when needing long-term support is absolutely legitimate. But even during those times, it’s to our benefit not only to receive others’ support, but also to do all we can to help ourselves along the road to healing—even if all we can do is weep before the Lord with grief too deep for words.
Life can be hard. We’ve all suffered. But our suffering will be much less if we don’t cause it ourselves, and don’t prolong it any longer than necessary. When we’re in pain, it’s hard to face the possibility that maybe, we’re partly at fault. Not always, not even usually, but sometimes. And if we examine ourselves and find that there is something more we can do to help lessen our pain than what we’re doing, let’s do it. God will meet us there, and He’ll multiply our efforts toward healing.
Exodus 14:13-16—Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.”