Handling the “Not Right” (12/06/2023)

It was the end of November, and as I flipped the November page on the calendar over and rehung the calendar on the frig door, I made a note: order a new calendar. And I did just that. And would you believe it, it arrived that very day at my front door. But it wasn’t the right calendar. It was larger than the one I thought I’d ordered. I shrugged, measured my frig door, and saw that it was a tight fit, but resolved to make do. Well, after days of trying to work with the new calendar that actually is too large for the space, having to realign it every over time someone uses the frig door, I realized I just couldn’t make it through 385 more days of this. I had to handle what was clearly “not right.”

I tried problem solving. How could I make the existing calendar smaller? How could I make it work in that space? Then a voice in my head repeatedly suggested, “Girl, just admit your mistake and get one that fits.” And so, this morning after prayer and after realigning that crazy calendar one more time, I did just that. I ordered one that was the right size.

At times, my spiritual journey has been like my “not right” calendar on the frig door. It wasn’t working for me, not really. But I slog through thinking to myself, “it’s no big thing.” And then, as with my calendar, that voice would challenge me: “If it’s not right, if it’s not working, look for something that will.”

Over my adult lifetime, I have changed my spiritual exercises that help me on my life’s journey. I have journaled at times, at others I have not been able to, so I set the journal aside and just spoke to the LORD. For years, liturgy of the hours was part of my daily spiritual regimen. But during chemo, I found a need to just come to the LORD and rest and be renewed silently. There are so many tools that we can employ in our spiritual journey to guide us, to nurture us. When we find that one is “not right,” it may be time to seek another.

Christ, we know, is “the Way and the Truth and the Life.” But we also know that some came to realize this through a healing, another through listening to his Sermon on the Mount, a third through his seeing him and promising to dine at his home that night. While there is only one “Way,” there is more than one manner to traverse that path, to encounter Christ in such a way that we are drawn more closely to Him. If our spiritual exercises are not drawing us closer to Christ and to one another day by day, is it time to adjust?

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.