04-06-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 6, 2024
The other night, I kept getting cramps in my right foot, specifically my toes. I get leg or foot cramps occasionally, but not very often. But I must have crawled out of bed seven or eight times as they kept on coming back. Nothing I did seemed to alleviate that painful contraction. At some point, I remembered that when cleaning out my mother’s apartment, she had some stuff to rub on for muscle cramps. I knew exactly where it was, and though it did not work immediately (and I can’t say for sure whether it was the actual source of relief or not), after another couple of rounds, including walking around the bedroom and stretching, I finally fell asleep.

The next morning, as I was getting ready, I remembered how jarring and discomforting it was. When thinking of the human body as a whole, the toes (actually, it was just the three smallest ones that were really cramping) are a rather insignificant part of the body in terms of weight, size, and source of any sort of daily recognition. Yet when they decided to scream and draw my attention, it was impossible to move on to whatever was next. In my case, it was sleep. It sort of became, for me, a metaphor for life. How often are we plugging along, getting things done, when something small in the whole scheme of things derails our plans? It doesn't matter how much you try to ignore it or tell yourself you’ll deal with it another day; you can’t move forward.

Sometimes the best-made plans get interrupted by something small, yet if it is not attended to, those best-made plans will never be realized. In Proverbs 4:25, it speaks of keeping your focus forward and not being distracted, but sometimes whatever is screaming for our attention will keep us from moving forward. Focus is always important until we realize that our focus must be redirected for a period of time if, in the long run, we desire to reach the intended goal.

God of Encouragement, in those moments when I am distracted and pulled away from what had been my focus, keep me from discouragement so that when the time is right, I can return to the main task at hand. Amen.