Walking Through the Valley (2)

Sandy has terminal cancer.  She is teaching me about life.  These are gems that we are privileged to glean from her.

"I saw a bumper sticker the other day. It said: What if doing the Hokey Pokey IS what it’s all about?
I laughed, and thought of Paula, and the time she made me stand up at the front at a playschool tea, and do the Hokey Pokey in front of all the parents and grandparents. Good times.

Doing the Hokey Pokey.
The more I thought about it, the more I came to think that there is a grain of truth in that statement.
What do you do in the Hokey Pokey?
You put your right hand in,
you take your right hand out,
You put your right hand in
And you shake it all about.
You do the hokey pokey, and you turn yourself around,
That’s what it’s all about.

BUT that’s NOT what it’s ALL about, because then you have to do it all over again with your left hand.
And then you think, “Okay, I get it… THAT’S what it’s ALL about.”

BUT you’re NOT done.
You have to put your right foot in, and then your left foot in, and then your head.
And you think you’re finally done.
But you’re not, because then you have to put your whole body in.

It’s very exhausting.
Which is why teachers of small children like it.

I think one of the reasons why the Hokey Pokey is so exhausting is because you keep thinking that it’s over… that you’ve done all the verses, and that you’re finally finished. But you’re never finished.

Life IS a little bit like doing the Hokey Pokey.
Have you ever been through something difficult? A time when you had to rely on God for something – strength, patience, safety, health? A time when you knew that it was just you and God? And you knew that if you didn’t cling to Him, you would just slide into the abyss?

If you’re alive, and if you have a relationship with God, then I’m sure you’ve had times like this. It might have been just a moment, or it may have lingered for months, or even years. And sometimes, when it is all over, we can look back and see how God touched our life in the midst of that darkness. We see a truth we learned, or a little growth spurt we experienced, or a deepening of our relationship with God. And we might be tempted to think that we figured it all out. That we know the WHYS.

I can’t tell you how many times I have figured out what life is all about. Or, at least, what my life is all about.
And I’d say to God, “OH! I get it! THAT’S what this is all about!” And I’d refer to the lesson, I thought I had learned through it all. But, like the Hokey Pokey, I’d turn myself about, and find myself learning the same lesson again later on. The circumstances might be different, but the “lesson” was similar.

It’s like there’s an overarching theme to my life. It’s different for all of us, but for me, this overarching theme has often had to do with learning how to let go of my expectations about what my life is going to be like.
Learning how to relinquish this obsessive need to control everything, and to make everything go MY way."