Knots

I had a thought this morning. Rather early for "deep thoughts" really, but there they were none the less. And since I remembered them, I thought that was a sign to write them out. Please don't take this as someone on a soapbox, but see it as someone trying to sort out their thoughts & discoveries throughout her Christianity & life.

My kids have been playing with this tunnel made of parachute material for a day or so now & it collapses flat & ties closed for storage. This morning after #1 son was already gone on the bus, #2 son wanted the tunnel "open". I realized #1 son had tried to open the tunnel himself & in doing so the ties knotted up.
It was gonna take some time to sit down & pick at the knots until I could get ahold of one end & undo the knots. It's funny how sometimes someone will offer to help you pick at knots in stuff. And what do we do? We refuse! This is a battle of wits & you want to show you can do it yourself & beat a stupid piece of string right?!

For some reason while sitting on their toy box and picking at the knots at 8:30 in the morning, I saw a correlation between the knots I'm working on & life. God loves us as His children & although we don't have it as nice as Adam & Eve in the garden, He doesn't give us struggles. God gives us choices-Free Will. Satan is the giver of knots. Satan presents us (as he did with Jesus) with temptations & stumbling blocks in our Christian walks & lives. We as adults, taking on Christ in baptism, choose to follow Christ & His example. Being human, we can create knots for ourselves quite easily in our choices. And then what happens? We sit & try to pick out the knots by ourselves. We don't want any help. We don't need any help. We break a nail, let a cuss word slip, get utterly frustrated & sometimes we give up. Or we make it worse. The knot gets bigger!

God wants & asks us to let Him help us with the knots. He wants us to humble ourselves before Him & pray, but most of all He wants us to NEED His help. God will never let Satan give us more than we can bear or handle. It sure seems like a lot on our plates sometimes though. There are some knots we work on only to set them down for awhile & come back to them later on with more patience & prayerful determination. And some knots seem to tighten as the years go by. I was talking with someone yesterday about when do we know when to "let go & give it to God" or when God's wanting to act through us. The knots this morning had me thinking that maybe we are taking the "let go & let God" to literally. Maybe, that is meant to say we stop working on the knot & talk to God & others about it. Then return to our work on the knot, encouraged, inspired, uplifted by God, in knowing with His help, one day the knot will be loosened, if not freed.

Perhaps that sounds rather pesimistic to say loosened. But in reality Christianity isn't easy. It's not all fixed in one prayer is it? Not the Christians I know. Everyone I know has knots. We are in a society today who loves a quick fix & that pertains to religion too. (that's a soap box for another day) However, this isn't TV & there isn't always a happy ending in 30 minutes. Sometimes those knots are slippery little devils. Pun intended.
I got my knots this morning undone in record time & without breaking a nail. But I think I got their point. We're always going to have knots. Some big, some with many layers & some easy. In any case, they are our life lessons. But how we go about working on untying them is left totally up to us. Free Will.