Wrenches

Background: I’ve had a string of days where I’ve been greeted by the monkey. You know, the one with the wrenches, that likes to ride on your back. So ready to put him out of his misery.

Wrenches, kinks, unexpected setbacks. They suck, but are a natural occurrence, like strong storms and gum on the bottom of your new shoes and bird poop on your freshly detailed car. The trick to handling wrenches isn’t avoiding them. The trick is to not let them ruin the show. Imagine a fashion show in Paris with some of the hottest designers and most beautiful models. Picture this tall, lean woman with her hair wildly colored and styled. She has on this gorgeous gown and turns in the middle of the runway to display the glamour of this dress. As she turns, she loses her balance and falls in the middle of the runway. What happens next?

Well, I can tell you she won’t be like some of our professional athletes, wallowing on the ground like they’re trying to win a role for a broadway performance. She will get back up and strut her stuff to the end of the runway and back again. And when she’s back stage, she’ll get a look over to make sure nothing is broken and into the next dress she goes. This is how we must be. Gotta show that monkey who’s boss. He might of clipped your legs with a wrench, but as you hop across the finish line of your day, you can look back at that monkey and grin, because he didn’t stop you.

Proverbs 31:3-5. This is the part of the passage where the king’s mom tells him not to waste his time on loose women that destroy kings, and not to drink as he may forget his responsibilities. I see the monkey as the woman. You can’t spend time with things that are meant to destroy you. So if that monkey is riding along with you, you gotta ditch him. The less attention you give him, the less time he’ll ride. I see the wrenches as the strong drink. You can’t forget what you came to do because a wrench was thrown in your path. If you spend more time addressing the wrench than you do the task that was disrupted by the wrench, you just lost, to a wrench. We have to focus on our task and how to get back on track after monkeys and wrenches have done their damage.

Another analogy would be a hurdler. if you ever ran track, you know that the hurdles are half your height, and for a short person like me, that’s pretty tall. A hurdler knows the hurdles are coming with each stride. His focus isn’t necessarily on the hurdle itself but how is he going to get over the hurdle. He thinks of his technique and all the practice he’s put in to be excellent at not falling over the hurdles. Just like the hurdler, we must become experts at managing setbacks and obstacles. We may not know when or how they’ll show up but how we react will determine our success. The goal is to not let them stop what you’re doing.

References: Proverbs 31:3-5