From Frogs to Teapots

Living in Colorado, every winter I see cars that have spun off the road and right into a guardrail or ditch. And every winter I hear folks reminding others to always steer in the opposite direction of the spin. It seems so counterintuitive, right? Then I was listening to someone recently tell about his experience getting to drive a real race car around the track. In the car with him was a professional driver who was helping to give him pointers. The professional noted that when he felt himself losing control (notice he said when, not if), to both look and steer in the direction he wanted to go rather than in the direction he wanted to avoid. Wow, I thought, that sounds simple! No wonder we’re told to steer in the opposite direction! Truth is, we all fixate on the disaster ahead and, like it or not, most times we steer right into it.

The country is currently heading in the wrong direction. Our Ferrari has been stolen and there are those who are intentionally in the process of driving it off a cliff at high speeds. Everything seems to be going haywire at the same time. Rather than saying “oh well, what can we do about it now”, let’s practice focusing and speaking in the direction we want to go instead, rather than in the direction we are trying desperately to avoid.

Frog Crossing Sign | Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Okay, so what does that have to do with frogs, and what do frogs have to do with teapots? Are people trying to avoid hitting frogs and teapots? Not exactly. I was just musing over how, if we want to challenge the way we think in this way, we will want to avoid the belief that we are all silent frogs in boiling water and start to see ourselves as the water itself – boiling in a loudly whistling teapot with steam rising all the way to Heaven. Be encouraged, God hears our cries.