Incomplete Idiot

"I've heard someone say that our problems aren't the problem; it's our solutions that are the problem. That tends to be one thing that goes wrong for me — my solutions." - Anne Lamott

Name:
Location: Georgia, United States

I am currently the Logistics Coordinator for MCYM/Club Beyond Europe (my missions agency is Young Life, just to be confusing). :0) I have traveled to many parts of this world, but I'm not as well-traveled as I would like to be some day. I have had more jobs than I can count, and my list of interests grows everyday. I take seriously Paul's urging to be "all things to all people". Mostly, I am interested in being a friend to all the folks I have been blessed to meet, because I am discovering (slowly) that it is not all about me.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Psychiatric Help 5 Cents


This is the sign Dr. Lucy Van Pelt hangs outside her booth to lure in the never suspecting, always trusting Charlie Brown. He happily forks over his cold change so that in return he might receive advice on the little red-headed girl or some other crisis he is having. He expects miracles for the low, low price of a nickel. He never fails to fail when he places his faith in Lucy, whether she is holding the elusive football or she is playing the part of psychoanalyst. I find great comfort in reading the somewhat predictable comic of Peanuts. Charlie Brown is always the same old melancholy, yet trusting soul; Lucy is, well, Lucy; Linus always knows more than a six year old ever should (or some thirty-six year olds ever will), and Snoopy is always up to something. In life, unlike Peanuts, people sometimes do manage to change. Sometimes they change for the better, sometimes not. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could predict change? Well, weather forcasters do, but that is the only job in the world where they can get it wrong 90% of the time and still have a job.

In one comic strip, Charlie Brown lies awake at night and asks the darkness, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice answers, "This is going to take more than one night." After oversleeping and not studying for a test that she fails, Peppermint Patty asks, "I wonder why I don't learn from my mistakes?" Then she figures, "I think maybe I'm losing my hindsight."

I identify very closely with both of these characters (especially Peppermint in more ways than I care to think about). I consistently put my trust in the things and people of this world (and worst of all, myself). I never fail to fail when trusting the created instead of the Creator. In an uncharacteristic move for Charlie Brown and myself, I am now demanding my nickel back from the Lucys that plague my life! I know I have not arrived at that perfect balance of faith and works, but I think I know now that God isn't a cosmic Lucy Van Pelt. He isn't holding the football and letting me charge full on only to snatch it away at the last minute. He is so much more trustworthy than that. Finally, after being banged and bruised from the self-induced fallings and failings, I can say with a certain amount of confidence that I at least want to learn from my mistakes and come out less bruised and banged up than the time before. It may take more than one night, and much more practice and hindsight than I want it to, but I want to learn to turn to God the first time around. If only because psychiatric help costs much more in the realm of reality outside of Peanuts, and because His grace is free (not cheap, but free).