Reflection to Revival

Comfort or Confinement:

We all like to feel like we’re in control of our own lives. For so long we have believed that if we just have stability and comfortability there’s not much else to it. We’re born, we live, we die, right? Seems simple. So, throughout our lives we strive for just that, stable and comfortable. How long, though, until stable and comfortable turns into stagnant and complacent? What happens when things change beyond our control?

We must admit we need guidance. Too often we’re looking in the wrong direction. We rely on the world to tell us what to do. In most situations, it’s almost too easy to get advice from family and friends or even an “influencer” online. Often, this advice coming from the world leads us back to a place of stability and comfort turning into stagnancy and complacency. Of course, until the next life changing event-and the cycle continues. How do we break out of that cycle? If only the all-knowing creator of the universe had left us some kind of guide for our life here on earth so we didn’t have to always turn to the world for advice.

From Comfy to kicked out:

While working at my nice job, with nice people, in my nice little comfort zone; I was handed a book to review for an upcoming quarterly workshop. No biggie, I had facilitated plenty before, some may say I was very comfortable with it. Little did I know the irony of the subject of that book would have an impact only God saw coming. Soon enough I would be forced to realize I was never in control of my life and sometimes the world doesn’t always have the best advice. At that point in my life, I thought I had it all figured out. The career, the kids, the home.

A few weeks before the workshop, I had gotten a job offer that could have changed things for me, but I was comfortable where I was and didn’t want anything to change. I felt like I was in control of my own life until God reminded me that he’s going to leave the ninety-nine to find the one. After preparing for the workshop and reading the book assigned to me, I was told the day of the workshop was going to be my last. My comfort and stability were suddenly gone.

Ironically enough, the book was about change and the choices we make during the moments of distress in situations beyond our control. I couldn’t help but feel like that was God foreshadowing to me what was about to happen. Guiding me, preparing me before the world even knew about it. Advice started coming from every angle I could think of when I lost my job and was thrown out of my comfort zone and into survival mode. I remembered how things had turned out for me in the past when my stability and comfort were wiped out. I would often turn to the world and fall back into the same routine and later be disappointed all over again. I longed for something different this time. Something that wasn’t temporary, I was searching for eternal joy.

The book :

“Who moved my cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson.

At first glance I thought this book was going to be very cheesy, if you will. I didn’t realize how insightful it would be and how it would open my mind to wondering once again.

“Who moved my cheese?” is a parable about adapting to sudden change, the choices and struggles we may face during those moments of change, and even the outcome of the choices we make. Pretty insightful for a book about cheese.

Dr. Johnson uses four imaginary characters that represent the simple and complex parts of ourselves in a general sense. Sniff and Surry who are mice, and Hem and Haw who are described as “people”. These four characters live inside of a maze; we can compare this maze to our lives. They were all stable, they were all comfortable in their maze.

Day after day the four would wake up and go to the spot in the maze that held the cheese. Cheese can be compared to the things of our lives. The temporary stability and comfort whether it be our job, our relationship, or even down to our material belongings. Everyday these characters woke up and did the same thing, eat cheese.

Suddenly, one day they wake up and their cheese is not there. Not in the spot it had been for -who knows how long; it was gone. Just like that.

It’s almost comical to see how this book ended up playing out for me in real life. The irony that my cheese was moved! What now? I didn’t have a job; my stability and comfort were rattled. I’ve always asked the big questions; the questions people tend to stay away from because they make us uncomfortable. I’ve always been a wonderer. Why this book? How does this align with a deeper understanding of something out of my control and so much bigger than myself? God moved my cheese. Why?

Remember, Hem and Haw are two fictional characters that represent parts of ourselves. Met with the challenge of not having food, Hem and Haw are in a state of survival and panic after being comfortable for so long.

Hem was very stubborn and didn’t want to change his routine. So, every day he woke up and went to the same spot to wait. He gripped and complained about how his cheese was moved, but never tried to do anything about it. He was too stagnant and complacent; he did not go out into the maze to find the cheese. He never looked for anything different than what he had known for so long. He would much rather starve than change. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23

Haw had a different approach to the situation. Still starving, still in shock, just like Hem, only with a different mindset. Haw was afraid to go out into the “unknown” maze of life, but he knew he needed cheese. Haw left every day to find new ways to get to the cheese, day after day with no luck but tons of determination. “Let us glory in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5:3-4

Haw eventually finds what he’s looking for-everlasting cheese. “Everyone who seeks, finds.” Matthew 7:8

After realizing that these two parts of myself were laid right in front of my eyes, and my life was a play by play of this book. I felt lost, I’m sure many can relate.

We’ve all had moments where our worlds were shifted, seasons of feeling lost and wanting comfort but not being able to find it because we’re too stubborn to make changes, or too impressionable by the world. Let’s be honest with ourselves, we’ve all been there. We repeat a cycle of bad decision making that leads us nowhere in the end. We like to gripe and complain that we want more but we’re often too afraid to go out into the maze and find the cheese.

We’re too afraid to be uncomfortable. When things get too heavy, we tend to run to the world for solutions. If we’ve had a stable job for a long time and suddenly lose it, our family will tell us we “better find another one quickly, there are mouths to feed.” The world won’t tell us to find something we enjoy doing, we’re too busy focused on “getting the bag”. If we’re coming out of a bad break up the world will tell us to party, drink away the pain or “distract yourself”. This outlook-this standard of morals leads us to a path of endless, depressed cycles of trying to find temporary stability and comfort until we eventually give out. (The wages of sin, my friend.)

We have choices we can make; we can break those cycles. The great news is that the creator of this beautiful perfect earth did in fact leave us a guide. BIBLE. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. That’s a big topic for another time.

For now, it’s about perspective and finding comfort in being uncomfortable. We trust in the wrong things, my friends. Set in our stubborn ways. Afraid of change. Be afraid not. “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you’ Says the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. When we stop trusting what the world tells us about how to fix our problems we stop living in fear, like Haw did in the cheese book. I encourage you to reflect on the events of your life and find small connections. NEVER stop wondering. Ask the questions that make you uncomfortable. Seek the purpose of why things happen the way they do, and how your choices can affect the outcome. This one book about cheese at just the right time in my life-who would’ve guessed it?