As we go through life, we often leap before we look – or at least I found that to be true in my life. Sometimes, I suppose, it’s because we think that we have all the facts, when in reality we only have part of the facts. Or, perhaps, it’s something that we want so badly, we really don’t want to KNOW all the facts, because if we really knew the facts, we’d use our better judgment and not do it.
Several years ago, my husband, Matthew, found an example of this in a most unusual place – the hall bathroom of our house, also known as the reading room in some circles. One night in the wee hours of the morning, he got up to visit the reading room. As was his custom, he flipped on the light so he could see.
What to his wondering eyes should appear? A FROG! It was in our toilet! Yes, a real, live frog peering up at Matthew as if to say “Hey buddy, why’d you turn on the light? I’m trying to sleep here!” Of course, Matthew yelled for me to come see. Then he ran and got the digital camera (because no one would believe this otherwise), and there we stood in our hall bathroom in the middle of the night with a frog in our toilet as the subject of our photo shoot!
After the photo shoot, we had to figure out how to help Mr. Frog (okay, it could have been Ms. Frog, but I never got close enough to determine that little detail) out of our bathroom and out of the house! We somehow coaxed him into a plastic cup (which was NEVER used again) and Matthew took him outside to live happily in the grass and hop away to his heart’s content.
To this day it is a mystery as to how he got in the toilet in the first place, but you can rest assured that on my nightly visits to the reading room, I now flip the light on to make sure he hasn’t decided to make an encore!
The same should be true of decisions we face in life. “Flip the light on” to be sure there isn’t something uninvited awaiting you before you leap.
However, in my old age I’ve decided that sometimes it may be better to just leap and worry about the frogs later. Some people refer to that as a leap of faith, and that really sets well with me. I’ve been waffling with this subject for years, and I obviously based on what I’ve just written I’m still struggling with it to some extent. But hear (read) me out.
Not to be preachy or anything, I am a person of faith – and by definition that means I don’t know the future or have all the answers. I just believe that decisions I make should be based on the best information I have, plus the feeling in my soul as I commune with God.
Sometimes no matter how much research we do, or how long we commune with God, there may be a frog or two in our “toilet”, also known as our future. We can’t know the ending to everything. Take this job, go to this school, marry this guy/gal – all of these decisions require faith. Faith is not knowing what’s around the corner and walking down the street anyway.
We can’t let our fear of the future freeze us from making decisions, and we can’t make decisions without doing some research. “Flipping on the light” to peer as much as we can into the future, by praying and communing with God, and then moving forward in faith.
See you next time…
