Start with Simple

My car is a 1993 Volvo 240 that was graciously given to me by my mother-in-law several years ago. It is slowly beginning to fall apart even though the engine itself is in decent shape. My odometer stopped working a couple of years ago, the radio cut out last winter, and now my driver's side door handle is broken (I have to reach in from the back door to open it from the inside now.) I used to boast about the cold air conditioning, but that also quit on me last summer. The only way I could stay relatively cool was to cruise down the road with all four windows down.

Yesterday afternoon, after laying sod all morning with a great volunteer crew, I climbed into my car to head home only to discover that my windows no longer went down. No maneuvering I could contrive would get them to move and I was left to ride home as the temperatures escalated inside. While yesterday's heat was not too unpleasant, I found myself thinking of the impending summer and wondering how I was going to cope. When I told my wife about the latest Volvo adventure, her first suggestion was that it was finally time to look for a new(er) vehicle.

I did poke around online looking at potential vehicles last night, but also decided to look for the simple fix first. My hope was that a fuse had blown and I could replace it inexpensively and quickly. My relief (fiscally and physically) was met when I discovered it was easily remedied with an inexpensive fuse. Perhaps I would have been better served by checking that first instead of wasting effort on other possible answers.

Sometimes we jump to the worst and biggest conclusions when there are better and simpler solutions available. We might help ourselves more if we adhere to an old rule one of my college professors always espoused-the KISS principle-which stands for, "Keep It Simple, Stupid."

I Can't See

I’ve worn glasses or contacts since I was in the third grade. I honestly needed them before then, but didn’t realize it since my vision was getting more blurry over time instead of all at once. There is a distinct memory of getting my first pair of glasses and suddenly being able to see things I didn’t know existed in such detail.

Recently I picked up a trial pair of contacts with a new prescription. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to be completely correct as my vision was slightly off from my old ones (and not in a good way.) I wore them for a few days to see if I just needed to get used to them, but my vision didn’t get any better. I suppose I could have just continued to wear those contacts and hope I adjusted to them, but that was never going to correct my vision problem.

We can’t settle for blurry vision in other areas of our life either. If we see something isn’t quite right, we should commit ourselves to doing something to correct the problem. Even if we convince ourselves we will get used to it that doesn’t provide a real solution to a lasting problem.

Effective Treatment

When I worked in athletic training there were injuries that were obviously acute--meaning they had occurred as a result of immediate trauma on the playing field. This could be a broken bone, a serious contusion, or a flesh wound. While sometimes serious, the course of action was fairly well laid out for immediate treatment and recovery.

Things became more complicated when you were unsure if the injury was acute or chronic. Some damage would go unnoticed by an athlete until it finally compounded enough to appear. These could actually be the result of chronic conditions and while acute treatments might alleviate immediate pain they wouldn't address the underlying problem.

We can be guilty of this in how we handle problems in our relationships and our community. If we don't recognize the ongoing nature of issues we end up throwing temporary solutions at them without having a lasting effect. To be truly effective we need to recognize the root issue and find a way to address it. It's the difference in dropping one meal off for a family without groceries or working together to change the factors that have contributed to the lack of food. One will be immediately appreciated and short-lived while the other corrects the root cause.

If we fail to recognize the difference between acute & chronic issues we can keep ourselves busy, but never truly be effective in fixing the problem.

That's Messy

I heard a quote from Madeline Albright (former Secretary of State) today where she was asked for her assessment on the state of the world. She simply said, "The world is a mess."

I think she might find many people who agree with her. We could all find things that contribute to the messiness we find ourselves in. It could be an uneven political climate, dysfunctional family dynamics, ineffective churches, the lack of male role models, and disunity. I doubt that we would struggle to come up with influences for our current situation. Identifying problems won't be an issue.

The bigger question is what is our response going to be? Are we content just to recognize the mess or do we want to do something about it? We can bemoan the current state of affairs or we can decide to engage in a two-step solution;

Step 1: Talk to the Creator and The Solver of problems and seek His wisdom and healing
Step 2: Do what He asks us to do to be part of the solution

It's time to stop simply talking about messiness and work to clean it up. We need to either do something about the state of the world or shut up.