Stick To It

Today, when I walked into my school classroom, there it was. Again. In the same spot it was several days before, and for several days in a row now. The realization was not quite fun, but the daily reminder was starting to get just sheer frustrating. And for that reason alone, it annoyed me and nudged me to move, to correct it, to make all things right in my little 4th grade classroom. What in the world am I talking about, might you ask. (?) A poster, that's what. A smallish poster containing a chart of the United States capitals, state birds, and state flowers. And where was it? On the floor. For what seemed like the fiftieth time. As I bent down this morning to re-stick this poster back on the wall. again. again. again. again. I looked at the back, saw all sorts of mounds and clusters of different kinds of tapes. Considered stapling the poster to the wall of the classroom. Saran wrapping it. Hot gluing it. Anything. Just doing something to make for sure that thing would stick to the wall and stop frustrating me oh-so-much.
But then. A strange idea occured to me. Does the poster have to be on the wall? No, the poster doesn't HAVE to be on the wall. Just because it always has been, doesn't mean it always has to be. Expecially since school is ending in two weeks. And the kids should know their state capitals by now. And. And. And.
Bottom line to this silly little daily frustration story is this: We do the same thing in our spiritual lives. We spend all sorts of mental, emotional, physical, etc. energy on trying things our own way. Though, many times and for many different reasons, our way "falls off the wall" so-to-speak. We try different venues. Maybe logical venues, such as "more" of this or "less" of this or a "different kind" of this. And pretty soon, our ideas just look and sound pretty ridiculous to everyone around us. Yet we justify. Let me tell you, we don't need more tape or staples to hold our plans together. We don't even need to waste our time, energy, and other resources to concoct crazy alternatives, such as saran wrap and hot glue to ensure our way works. What we sometimes (and most often) need is simply this: to take our plans and our thoughts of how things "should be" off the wall altogether. Just because we've always done it our way doesn't mean it should continue. And when we have the courage to take our posters of our plans off the wall, guess what? A space is cleared and primed for the setting of a Masterpeice.
Think about it.
And stick to that.