Morning Prayer: 40/100. The Door Problem.

Big Problem

Big Problem!

I haven’t discovered the truth of the young boy’s freeing the 18-wheeler truck wedged beneath an overpass. Story is he suggested they let air out of the tires.

I have discovered the accuracy of his principle!

Cindy and I expected the delivery of a new chair for our living room. We wanted to move the older chair to the window in our bedroom. Cindy tried while I was at work. She told me her efforts got only as far as the bedroom door, where she discovered the chair was just too wide.

The boy and the tractor-trailer came to mind.

Solved Problem

Solved Problem!

We lay a beach towel on the floor beside the chair. I turned the chair on its side, atop the towel. Cindy and I unscrewed each of the four 6-inch legs. I grabbed the edge of the towel and gingerly slid the chair down the hall, through the door and into the bedroom. We screwed the legs back on and uprighted the chair. 5 minutes, max.

Did that feel good!

Problems are as we define them. Therefore, we determine how (or if) we can solve them. In fact, problems are as we create them, for a problem has no reality until we give it definition as a problem.

Problem Definition 1: the chair would not go through the door. Impossible to solve.

Problem Definition 2: the chair is too large to go through the door. Difficult to solve.

Problem Definition 3: the chair, with its legs attached will not fit through the door. Solvable.

In and of itself, the chair was fine in the living room. The definition elements — chair, door, size, legs — make the problem solvable. Or not, if we define it as unsolvable.

So, what’s the blessing of this? Whether our problem is moving an 80,000 pound 18-wheeler or a 2-year old chair?

The blessing is we have the power to know every problem can be solved. We need only know we give it reality by defining it. We have the power to define it as solvable.

Reality is not what we experience. Reality is our reaction to the experience.

Living, Loving Good Friend!
How wonderful that you let us know we make our problems.
We may not cause them; we surely define them.
And knowing that, we know our definition can tell us
that we can solve the problem.
Big deal or little deal. Good deal either way.
This demonstrates the wonderful truth
that what we think determines our experience,
our reality.
Good Friend God, this freedom is such a gift.
The gift of letting go of problems.
The gift of enjoying solving problems.
The gift of realizing problems are no more real than we decide.
The gift of laughing in the face of problems.
The gift of laughing in the shower of solutions!
We thank you, God!
And so it is. Amen.

Love and blessings,

Tim

12 June 2016