Lessons from Two Puddles

Yesterday was a very rainy day in Maine, so I didn’t go on my prayer-walk. But today, although windy and cool I bundled up early and headed up Plummer School Road and Perry Hill Road, where I usually make the circuit through the woods and back.

When I reached the top of Perry Hill, where I start to enter the woods I thought I would only go a short part of the way into the woods and turn around to retrace my steps rather than venture through after such heavy rains. The puddles the rains leave are hard to navigate. But the deeper in I went the conditions didn’t seem as bad as I expected. When I reached the big curve-left I knew it was time for a major decision, either turn back now or forge ahead.

I stopped and waited for the answer from my guardian angel. I don’t know whether the decision came from me or my angel, but I decided to forge ahead. I didn’t hit a big wide puddle for about 20 minutes, my shoes being able to manage the rivulets while keeping my feet relatively dry.

Up ahead, there it was, the big puddle that I wanted to avoid. The banks of the muddy-puddle were so narrow that I decided to circumvent it through the pathless woods. I had to forge through territory that no man paved the way for me, pushing aside branches and stepping on sticks and stones, leaves and probably all kinds of invisible insects. Several steps in I was confronted with a barrier. A long limb with a diameter of about 6 inches lay across two thin tree trucks. Another decision. Go around or try to move it. I decided to move it. Lo and behold ! The limb just broke and fell down giving me plenty of room to step over it! That’s when I was happiest to be going through the woods instead of back down the street.

That experience showed me how when we see obstacles in life, if we deal with them head on, they too may prove to be weak, and not as threatening as we imagined they were.

I happily went back on the well trodden path.

Until I met an even larger, deeper puddle! I peered into the woods on the right and decided it was time to circumvent the obstacle again. Only this time it was more difficult and I fell. On this route I encountered big rocks that I had to step on and over. The path that I was forging was so complicated that for a moment I became disoriented, and looked around for the well trodden path. When I spotted it, I relaxed and made my way there, noting that I was ahead of the big puddle by several feet.

This puddle taught me how some obstacles are more difficult to get passed, but with the same results. And I was doubly glad that I originally took the route through the woods. Soon I encountered my two sunny spots which are the landmarks that show me that I am near the end of the woods and about to reach Whip-poor-will Farm.

As I walked, praying, listening to my Athens - Church liturgy and dealing with the puddles, another very interesting thought came to my mind, whether from my angel, or my Saint or me I don’t know, but I knew I needed to write it down. It was about when God won’t help and why.

I have always known how bad lying is. God hates lying because it is as if we little humans are trying to recreate the perfect world, and you know we will mess it up terribly. Our world has rules of nature so perfectly arranged that only under the most specific and rare circumstances can they be altered. If every time someone asked for divine intervention it was given, it would be like asking God to recreate the world. God never lies. God cannot lie.  This explains why, no matter how much we beg for something, it is not given. Spiritual rules are not much different than rules of nature. So, sometimes you have to go around the puddles, or go through them, but the puddles won’t just disappear.

Jesus, being the Son of the Creator, God, was able to command nature and the demon world, unlike or to the extent that no prophet ever did before Him. Saints from their asceticism and general way of life (staying in the narrowest of paths), also are able to overcome natural laws and have power over demons, but that too is rare. Asking God to answer our prayers, when we have fears, excuses, skepticism and refuse to overcome them ourselves, is asking too much.  It’s asking for a miracle like a snowstorm in Jamaica, or horses to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Spiritual laws and natural laws are perfect. To work best for us, we need to work within their guidelines. Saints try to teach us how to navigate spiritual laws, and to the extent we are willing to change ourselves, we can learn and grow. It’s like we are the puddle and we can also work a way around it, by working around our natural selves.

I thanked God for the lessons, and got back to my cabin a half hour late for a team call. When I went to sign on, albeit late, I saw that the project manager delayed the meeting for a half hour, so I was just in time!